Max Lucado Daily: LET GOD TRAIN YOU
All tests are temporary, limited in duration. 1 Peter 1:6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” Some tests end on earth, but all tests will end in heaven, right? In the meantime, let God train you. He watches the way you handle the little jobs. Jesus promised in Matthew 25:21, “If you’re faithful over a few matters, I will set you over many.”
Do you aspire to do great things? Excel in the small things. Don’t complain. Let others grumble, not you. When you’re given a task, take it. When you see a hurt, address it. Compassion matters to God. This is the time for service, not self-centeredness. Cancel the pity party. Love the people God brings to you. He will work in you what is pleasing to Him. You will get through this.
Isaiah 49
Listen, far-flung islands,
pay attention, faraway people:
God put me to work from the day I was born.
The moment I entered the world he named me.
He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.
He kept his hand on me to protect me.
He made me his straight arrow
and hid me in his quiver.
He said to me, “You’re my dear servant,
Israel, through whom I’ll shine.”
4 But I said, “I’ve worked for nothing.
I’ve nothing to show for a life of hard work.
Nevertheless, I’ll let God have the last word.
I’ll let him pronounce his verdict.”
5-6 “And now,” God says,
this God who took me in hand
from the moment of birth to be his servant,
To bring Jacob back home to him,
to set a reunion for Israel—
What an honor for me in God’s eyes!
That God should be my strength!
He says, “But that’s not a big enough job for my servant—
just to recover the tribes of Jacob,
merely to round up the strays of Israel.
I’m setting you up as a light for the nations
so that my salvation becomes global!”
7 God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel,
says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations,
slave labor to the ruling class:
“Kings will see, get to their feet—the princes, too—
and then fall on their faces in homage
Because of God, who has faithfully kept his word,
The Holy of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8-12 God also says:
“When the time’s ripe, I answer you.
When victory’s due, I help you.
I form you and use you
to reconnect the people with me,
To put the land in order,
to resettle families on the ruined properties.
I tell prisoners, ‘Come on out. You’re free!’
and those huddled in fear, ‘It’s all right. It’s safe now.’
There’ll be foodstands along all the roads,
picnics on all the hills—
Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty,
shade from the sun, shelter from the wind,
For the Compassionate One guides them,
takes them to the best springs.
I’ll make all my mountains into roads,
turn them into a superhighway.
Look: These coming from far countries,
and those, out of the north,
These streaming in from the west,
and those from all the way down the Nile!”
13 Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead!
Mountains, send up cheers!
God has comforted his people.
He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people.
14 But Zion said, “I don’t get it. God has left me.
My Master has forgotten I even exist.”
15-18 “Can a mother forget the infant at her breast,
walk away from the baby she bore?
But even if mothers forget,
I’d never forget you—never.
Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands.
The walls you’re rebuilding are never out of my sight.
Your builders are faster than your wreckers.
The demolition crews are gone for good.
Look up, look around, look well!
See them all gathering, coming to you?
As sure as I am the living God”—God’s Decree—
“you’re going to put them on like so much jewelry,
you’re going to use them to dress up like a bride.
19-21 “And your ruined land?
Your devastated, decimated land?
Filled with more people than you know what to do with!
And your barbarian enemies, a fading memory.
The children born in your exile will be saying,
‘It’s getting too crowded here. I need more room.’
And you’ll say to yourself,
‘Where on earth did these children come from?
I lost everything, had nothing, was exiled and penniless.
So who reared these children?
How did these children get here?’”
22-23 The Master, God, says:
“Look! I signal to the nations,
I raise my flag to summon the people.
Here they’ll come: women carrying your little boys in their arms,
men carrying your little girls on their shoulders.
Kings will be your babysitters,
princesses will be your nursemaids.
They’ll offer to do all your drudge work—
scrub your floors, do your laundry.
You’ll know then that I am God.
No one who hopes in me ever regrets it.”
24-26 Can plunder be retrieved from a giant,
prisoners of war gotten back from a tyrant?
But God says, “Even if a giant grips the plunder
and a tyrant holds my people prisoner,
I’m the one who’s on your side,
defending your cause, rescuing your children.
And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves,
killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction.
Then everyone will know that I, God,
have saved you—I, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Job 7:17–21
“What is mankind that you make so much of them,
that you give them so much attention,
18 that you examine them every morning
and test them every moment?
19 Will you never look away from me,
or let me alone even for an instant?
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
you who see everything we do?
Why have you made me your target?
Have I become a burden to you?[a]
21 Why do you not pardon my offenses
and forgive my sins?
For I will soon lie down in the dust;
you will search for me, but I will be no more.”
Footnotes:
Job 7:20 A few manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition and Septuagint; most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text I have become a burden to myself.
Insight
Job 7:17 reads much like Psalm 8:4, “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” But the similarity between these two passages ends there. David in Psalm 8 extols God for caring for humans so much that He set them over all other creatures and “made them a little lower than the angels” (vv. 5–8). Job, on the other hand, bemoans God’s attention: “What is mankind that you make so much of them, . . . that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?” (7:17–18). Job feels as if God targeted and relentlessly pursued him (vv. 11–21). Yet after God finally speaks (chs. 38–41), we see a shift in Job’s attitude: “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (42:3). Once again, we see a parallel to Psalm 8.
Why Me?
Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Job 7:20
The Book of Odds says that one in a million people are struck by lightning. It also says that one in 25,000 experiences a medical condition called “broken heart syndrome” in the face of overwhelming shock or loss. In page after page the odds of experiencing specific problems pile up without answering: What if we’re the one?
Job defied all odds. God said of him, “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8). Yet Job was chosen to suffer a series of losses that defied all odds. Of all people on earth, Job had reason to beg for an answer. It’s all there for us to read in chapter after chapter of his desperate struggle to understand, “Why me?”
Job’s story gives us a way of responding to the mystery of unexplained pain and evil. By describing the suffering and confusion of one of God’s best examples of goodness and mercy (ch. 25), we gain an alternative to the inflexible rule of sowing and reaping (4:7–8). By providing a backstory of satanic mayhem (ch. 1) and an afterword (42:7–17) from the God who would one day allow His Son to bear our sins, the story of Job gives us reason to live by faith rather than sight. By: Mart DeHaan
Reflect & Pray
How do you feel about a God who sometimes allows suffering without explanation? How does the story of Job help you understand this?
God of creation, Giver of life, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, please help us to trust You more than our own eyes and hearts.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
The Life To Know Him
…tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. —Luke 24:49
The disciples had to tarry, staying in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost, not only for their own preparation but because they had to wait until the Lord was actually glorified. And as soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). The statement in John 7:39— “…for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”— does not pertain to us. The Holy Spirit has been given; the Lord is glorified— our waiting is not dependent on the providence of God, but on our own spiritual fitness.
The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Once our Lord was glorified in His ascension, the Holy Spirit came into the world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revealed truth that He is here. The attitude of receiving and welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives is to be the continual attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive reviving life from our ascended Lord.
It is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit that changes people, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into their lives through the Holy Spirit. We all too often separate things that the New Testament never separates. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ— it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not make you think of time or eternity— it is one amazing glorious now. “This is eternal life, that they may know You…” (John 17:3). Begin to know Him now, and never finish.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 1-3; John 10:1-23
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Watching Him Drown - #8708
It was a 911 call that alerted the first responders. A man was slowly wading out into San Francisco Bay, inching his way to ending his life there. Pretty soon a group of firefighters, and a crowd of about 75 people, were watching as this desperate man went a little deeper and a little deeper, and sadly occasionally glancing back at the shore. They stood there watching for an hour...and they watched him die, without anyone making a move to help him.
I can only imagine this man looking back at those spectators, wondering, "Does anyone care if I live or die?" And I wonder how life-changing it might have been if someone had been willing to try to save him. It's just kind of sickening isn't it?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Watching Him Drown."
You know, understandably, everyone was pretty quick to jump on those firefighters and onlookers who did nothing while a man died in front of them. And you know they all had their reasons; some maybe more valid than others. But I'm seeing something else in this horribly sad incident, because I see something of myself and so many of my fellow Jesus-followers in that scene by the bay. Because all too often, we stand idly by as people around us go steadily to their death. Oh, this is an eternal death, forever away from God, because that's the penalty for hijacking the running of our life from Him, and every single human has done that.
God tells us that He has "given us eternal life and this life is in His Son" because His Son did the dying for all our sinning. Now our word for today from the Word of God is in 1 John 5:11-12. Here's what they say: "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." In other words, there is no way the people we care about will get into heaven without Jesus. And He has left us with that life-or-death information that their eternity depends on.
So, our orders from God in Proverbs 24:11 are to "rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter." See, to remain silent about my Jesus to someone without Him is the equivalent to watching them slowly die in front of me when I have, hidden in my heart, what could save them.
I'm sure those people on the shore each had their reasons, or excuses, for doing nothing. But is there an excuse for standing by when it is within your power to save someone who's dying - certainly spiritually? We all know the reasons or the excuses we offer for our silence about the Rescuer who came from heaven.
The fear of offending, the fear of damaging a relationship, the fear of not being liked, the fear of messing it up. By the way, did you notice all those fears have one thing in common? They're all about me. Isn't it time I had a greater fear than what might happen to me if I go in for the rescue? That would be the fear of what will happen to them if I don't. Because life now without Jesus is hard, and life forever without Him is horrible, unthinkable.
I know this: I know that Jesus jumped in to rescue me at the cost of His life. How can I, then, stay on the shore any longer and watch people I know slip away without Him; without a chance to live forever. And I am their chance.
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Isaiah 48, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S DELIGHTS IN OUR DEVELOPMENT
Howard Rutledge came to appreciate his time as a POW in Vietnam. He wrote: “After twenty-eight days of torture, I could remember I had children but not how many. I prayed for strength. During long periods of enforced reflection it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for steak. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God.”
God is at work in each of us, whether we want it or not. He takes no pleasure in making life hard. Philippians 1:6 says, “He doesn’t relish in our sufferings, but He delights in our development.” No one said the road would be painless or easy, but God will use this mess for something good. God is doing what is best for us, training us to live His holy best. Have this assurance…you will get through this.
Isaiah 48
“And now listen to this, family of Jacob,
you who are called by the name Israel:
Who got you started in the loins of Judah,
you who use God’s name to back up your promises
and pray to the God of Israel?
But do you mean it?
Do you live like it?
You claim to be citizens of the Holy City;
you act as though you lean on the God of Israel,
named God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
For a long time now, I’ve let you in on the way I work:
I told you what I was going to do beforehand,
then I did it and it was done, and that’s that.
I know you’re a bunch of hardheads,
obstinate and flint-faced,
So I got a running start and began telling you
what was going on before it even happened.
That is why you can’t say,
‘My god-idol did this.’
‘My favorite god-carving commanded this.’
You have all this evidence
confirmed by your own eyes and ears.
Shouldn’t you be talking about it?
And that was just the beginning.
I have a lot more to tell you,
things you never knew existed.
This isn’t a variation on the same old thing.
This is new, brand-new,
something you’d never guess or dream up.
When you hear this you won’t be able to say,
‘I knew that all along.’
You’ve never been good listeners to me.
You have a history of ignoring me,
A sorry track record of fickle attachments—
rebels from the womb.
But out of the sheer goodness of my heart,
because of who I am,
I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper.
I don’t wash my hands of you.
Do you see what I’ve done?
I’ve refined you, but not without fire.
I’ve tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction.
Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do.
I have my reputation to keep up.
I’m not playing second fiddle to either gods or people.
12-13 “Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel—
I’m the One who named you!
I’m the One.
I got things started and, yes, I’ll wrap them up.
Earth is my work, handmade.
And the skies—I made them, too, horizon to horizon.
When I speak, they’re on their feet, at attention.
14-16 “Come everybody, gather around, listen:
Who among the gods has delivered the news?
I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I’m using him
to do what I want with Babylon.
I, yes I, have spoken. I’ve called him.
I’ve brought him here. He’ll be successful.
Come close, listen carefully:
I’ve never kept secrets from you.
I’ve always been present with you.”
16-19 And now, the Master, God, sends me and his Spirit
with this Message from God,
your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel:
“I am God, your God,
who teaches you how to live right and well.
I show you what to do, where to go.
If you had listened all along to what I told you,
your life would have flowed full like a river,
blessings rolling in like waves from the sea.
Children and grandchildren are like sand,
your progeny like grains of sand.
There would be no end of them,
no danger of losing touch with me.”
20 Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians!
Shout the news. Broadcast it.
Let the world know, the whole world.
Tell them, “God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!”
21 They weren’t thirsty when he led them through the deserts.
He made water pour out of the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed.
22 “There is no peace,” says God, “for the wicked.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 16:1–2, 21–24
To humans belong the plans of the heart,
but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.
2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them,
but motives are weighed by the Lord.
The wise in heart are called discerning,
and gracious words promote instruction.[a]
22 Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent,
but folly brings punishment to fools.
23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,
and their lips promote instruction.[b]
24 Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Insight
Why does Proverbs 16:1 contrast “plans of the heart” with “the proper answer of the tongue”? Consider Jesus’ response when the Pharisees asked Him why His disciples broke rabbinical tradition by not washing their hands (Matthew 15:1–2). Jesus knew that our problem isn’t in keeping rules, but in making our hearts pure. He reminded them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’ ” (vv. 7–8; see also Isaiah 29:13). Jesus added, “The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts” (Matthew 15:18–19). Proverbs tells us that “motives are weighed by the Lord” (16:2) who sees our heart. Verses 21 and 23 note the close connection between heart and speech. Our true nature will reveal itself in our words.
Sweeter Than Honey
Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
His topic was racial tension. Yet the speaker remained calm and collected. Standing on stage before a large audience, he spoke boldly—but with grace, humility, kindness, and even humor. Soon the tense audience visibly relaxed, laughing along with the speaker about the dilemma they all faced: how to resolve their hot issue, but cool down their feelings and words. Yes, how to tackle a sour topic with sweet grace.
King Solomon advised this same approach for all of us: “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24). In this way, “The hearts of the wise make . . . their lips promote instruction” (v. 23).
Why would a powerful king like Solomon devote time to addressing how we speak? Because words can destroy. During Solomon’s time, kings relied on messengers for information about their nations, and calm and reliable messengers were highly valued. They used prudent words and reasoned tongues, not overreacting or speaking harshly, no matter the issue.
We all can benefit by gracing our opinions and thoughts with godly and prudent sweetness. In Solomon’s words, “To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue” (v. 1). By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What is your way of speaking when talking about a hot and divisive topic? When you allow God’s Spirit to sweeten your tongue, what changes in your words?
Our holy God, when we speak on hard topics, soften our hearts and words with Your sweet Spirit.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Thinking of Prayer as Jesus Taught
Pray without ceasing… —1 Thessalonians 5:17
Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing…”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “…everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). Yet we say, “But…, but….” God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?
The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 28-29; John 9:24-41
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
The Price to Go Free - #8707
I guess you could call it a "tale of two cities." It was during the Civil War. The Confederate Army had again invaded the North. The Confederate General came to Hagerstown, Maryland, and he threatened to burn the town unless they came up with a $20,000 ransom. A local businessman rallied the townspeople and he collected the ransom. Hagerstown was spared. Then the Confederate forces moved up to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and they made the same demand. Those folks didn't come up with the ransom. Chambersburg was burned to the ground.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Price to Go Free."
Ransom unpaid, you pay the penalty. Ransom paid, you go free. The ransom made the difference. That's true, not only in the history of those Civil War communities; it's true in our own personal histories. You and I face a terrible penalty, and the ransom makes all the difference. Not just for now, but for all eternity.
The penalty every one of us faces is spelled out in six stark words in the Bible: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). In other words, what we get paid for running our life our way instead of God's way is "death." And the Bible makes it clear that death isn't just your heart stopping. It's a spiritual death - eternal separation from the God who made us.
"Hell" is the word that God uses to describe an unspeakable eternity without Him, without His love and with no relief. It's a price I deserve to pay because I have made me the center of my universe and I have pushed the God of the universe to the edge. That's God! It's a price we all deserve to pay. Our fear of death is not an irrational one; especially in light of the judgment that's right on the other side.
But then there's the ransom. Jesus tells us about it in Mark 10:45, our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." The price for you to go free has been paid by the only Son God has. When Jesus was going through that awful agony on the cross, He was literally paying for everything you've ever done against God. For you to pay for your sins would take an eternity in hell. But the Son of God was paying your price, going through your hell for you, and He sacrificed His life on the cross. He was literally taking your place and mine!
So the price has been paid. But only you can personalize for yourself what Jesus died to do for you. Your penalty before God is marked "paid" the moment you put your total trust in Jesus Christ to be your own personal Savior from your personal sin. A rescuer comes and throws out a line to a drowning man, but that man has to grab the line. Jesus has done everything that was needed to be done for your sins to be forgiven, for you to be rescued from an awful eternity. But you have to grab Him with all the faith you've got and say, "Jesus, you're my only hope."
Have you ever done that? If you never have, and you want to be able to go to bed tonight knowing that you're forgiven and knowing that you're going to heaven, and knowing you're right with God, then why don't you tell Jesus right now you're His from now on. You don't have to be in stained glass windows. You don't have to be in a church. God's right there waiting for you. He's been waiting a long time to hear you say, "Jesus, I'm yours."
Jesus is alive today because He walked out of His grave after He died for you. Now He's waiting for you to turn from the running of your own life and grab Him with both hands and say, "Jesus, you're my hope, my only hope."
I'd love to help you begin this relationship with him. That's why we've set up our website to do just that. I'd urge you to go there right now if you feel this Jesus tug in your heart. The website is ANewStory.com. Go there today, please.
The ransom is the difference between paying the price and going free. Jesus shed His blood to pay the price for you. Don't risk another day without Him.
Howard Rutledge came to appreciate his time as a POW in Vietnam. He wrote: “After twenty-eight days of torture, I could remember I had children but not how many. I prayed for strength. During long periods of enforced reflection it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for steak. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God.”
God is at work in each of us, whether we want it or not. He takes no pleasure in making life hard. Philippians 1:6 says, “He doesn’t relish in our sufferings, but He delights in our development.” No one said the road would be painless or easy, but God will use this mess for something good. God is doing what is best for us, training us to live His holy best. Have this assurance…you will get through this.
Isaiah 48
“And now listen to this, family of Jacob,
you who are called by the name Israel:
Who got you started in the loins of Judah,
you who use God’s name to back up your promises
and pray to the God of Israel?
But do you mean it?
Do you live like it?
You claim to be citizens of the Holy City;
you act as though you lean on the God of Israel,
named God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
For a long time now, I’ve let you in on the way I work:
I told you what I was going to do beforehand,
then I did it and it was done, and that’s that.
I know you’re a bunch of hardheads,
obstinate and flint-faced,
So I got a running start and began telling you
what was going on before it even happened.
That is why you can’t say,
‘My god-idol did this.’
‘My favorite god-carving commanded this.’
You have all this evidence
confirmed by your own eyes and ears.
Shouldn’t you be talking about it?
And that was just the beginning.
I have a lot more to tell you,
things you never knew existed.
This isn’t a variation on the same old thing.
This is new, brand-new,
something you’d never guess or dream up.
When you hear this you won’t be able to say,
‘I knew that all along.’
You’ve never been good listeners to me.
You have a history of ignoring me,
A sorry track record of fickle attachments—
rebels from the womb.
But out of the sheer goodness of my heart,
because of who I am,
I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper.
I don’t wash my hands of you.
Do you see what I’ve done?
I’ve refined you, but not without fire.
I’ve tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction.
Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do.
I have my reputation to keep up.
I’m not playing second fiddle to either gods or people.
12-13 “Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel—
I’m the One who named you!
I’m the One.
I got things started and, yes, I’ll wrap them up.
Earth is my work, handmade.
And the skies—I made them, too, horizon to horizon.
When I speak, they’re on their feet, at attention.
14-16 “Come everybody, gather around, listen:
Who among the gods has delivered the news?
I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I’m using him
to do what I want with Babylon.
I, yes I, have spoken. I’ve called him.
I’ve brought him here. He’ll be successful.
Come close, listen carefully:
I’ve never kept secrets from you.
I’ve always been present with you.”
16-19 And now, the Master, God, sends me and his Spirit
with this Message from God,
your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel:
“I am God, your God,
who teaches you how to live right and well.
I show you what to do, where to go.
If you had listened all along to what I told you,
your life would have flowed full like a river,
blessings rolling in like waves from the sea.
Children and grandchildren are like sand,
your progeny like grains of sand.
There would be no end of them,
no danger of losing touch with me.”
20 Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians!
Shout the news. Broadcast it.
Let the world know, the whole world.
Tell them, “God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!”
21 They weren’t thirsty when he led them through the deserts.
He made water pour out of the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed.
22 “There is no peace,” says God, “for the wicked.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 16:1–2, 21–24
To humans belong the plans of the heart,
but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.
2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them,
but motives are weighed by the Lord.
The wise in heart are called discerning,
and gracious words promote instruction.[a]
22 Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent,
but folly brings punishment to fools.
23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,
and their lips promote instruction.[b]
24 Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Insight
Why does Proverbs 16:1 contrast “plans of the heart” with “the proper answer of the tongue”? Consider Jesus’ response when the Pharisees asked Him why His disciples broke rabbinical tradition by not washing their hands (Matthew 15:1–2). Jesus knew that our problem isn’t in keeping rules, but in making our hearts pure. He reminded them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’ ” (vv. 7–8; see also Isaiah 29:13). Jesus added, “The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts” (Matthew 15:18–19). Proverbs tells us that “motives are weighed by the Lord” (16:2) who sees our heart. Verses 21 and 23 note the close connection between heart and speech. Our true nature will reveal itself in our words.
Sweeter Than Honey
Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
His topic was racial tension. Yet the speaker remained calm and collected. Standing on stage before a large audience, he spoke boldly—but with grace, humility, kindness, and even humor. Soon the tense audience visibly relaxed, laughing along with the speaker about the dilemma they all faced: how to resolve their hot issue, but cool down their feelings and words. Yes, how to tackle a sour topic with sweet grace.
King Solomon advised this same approach for all of us: “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24). In this way, “The hearts of the wise make . . . their lips promote instruction” (v. 23).
Why would a powerful king like Solomon devote time to addressing how we speak? Because words can destroy. During Solomon’s time, kings relied on messengers for information about their nations, and calm and reliable messengers were highly valued. They used prudent words and reasoned tongues, not overreacting or speaking harshly, no matter the issue.
We all can benefit by gracing our opinions and thoughts with godly and prudent sweetness. In Solomon’s words, “To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue” (v. 1). By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What is your way of speaking when talking about a hot and divisive topic? When you allow God’s Spirit to sweeten your tongue, what changes in your words?
Our holy God, when we speak on hard topics, soften our hearts and words with Your sweet Spirit.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Thinking of Prayer as Jesus Taught
Pray without ceasing… —1 Thessalonians 5:17
Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing…”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “…everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). Yet we say, “But…, but….” God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?
The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 28-29; John 9:24-41
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
The Price to Go Free - #8707
I guess you could call it a "tale of two cities." It was during the Civil War. The Confederate Army had again invaded the North. The Confederate General came to Hagerstown, Maryland, and he threatened to burn the town unless they came up with a $20,000 ransom. A local businessman rallied the townspeople and he collected the ransom. Hagerstown was spared. Then the Confederate forces moved up to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and they made the same demand. Those folks didn't come up with the ransom. Chambersburg was burned to the ground.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Price to Go Free."
Ransom unpaid, you pay the penalty. Ransom paid, you go free. The ransom made the difference. That's true, not only in the history of those Civil War communities; it's true in our own personal histories. You and I face a terrible penalty, and the ransom makes all the difference. Not just for now, but for all eternity.
The penalty every one of us faces is spelled out in six stark words in the Bible: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). In other words, what we get paid for running our life our way instead of God's way is "death." And the Bible makes it clear that death isn't just your heart stopping. It's a spiritual death - eternal separation from the God who made us.
"Hell" is the word that God uses to describe an unspeakable eternity without Him, without His love and with no relief. It's a price I deserve to pay because I have made me the center of my universe and I have pushed the God of the universe to the edge. That's God! It's a price we all deserve to pay. Our fear of death is not an irrational one; especially in light of the judgment that's right on the other side.
But then there's the ransom. Jesus tells us about it in Mark 10:45, our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." The price for you to go free has been paid by the only Son God has. When Jesus was going through that awful agony on the cross, He was literally paying for everything you've ever done against God. For you to pay for your sins would take an eternity in hell. But the Son of God was paying your price, going through your hell for you, and He sacrificed His life on the cross. He was literally taking your place and mine!
So the price has been paid. But only you can personalize for yourself what Jesus died to do for you. Your penalty before God is marked "paid" the moment you put your total trust in Jesus Christ to be your own personal Savior from your personal sin. A rescuer comes and throws out a line to a drowning man, but that man has to grab the line. Jesus has done everything that was needed to be done for your sins to be forgiven, for you to be rescued from an awful eternity. But you have to grab Him with all the faith you've got and say, "Jesus, you're my only hope."
Have you ever done that? If you never have, and you want to be able to go to bed tonight knowing that you're forgiven and knowing that you're going to heaven, and knowing you're right with God, then why don't you tell Jesus right now you're His from now on. You don't have to be in stained glass windows. You don't have to be in a church. God's right there waiting for you. He's been waiting a long time to hear you say, "Jesus, I'm yours."
Jesus is alive today because He walked out of His grave after He died for you. Now He's waiting for you to turn from the running of your own life and grab Him with both hands and say, "Jesus, you're my hope, my only hope."
I'd love to help you begin this relationship with him. That's why we've set up our website to do just that. I'd urge you to go there right now if you feel this Jesus tug in your heart. The website is ANewStory.com. Go there today, please.
The ransom is the difference between paying the price and going free. Jesus shed His blood to pay the price for you. Don't risk another day without Him.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Isaiah 47, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Get Over Yourself
Proverbs 16:5 says, "The Lord despises pride." So, get over yourself!
An elementary boy came home from tryouts for the school play. "Mommy, mommy" he announced, "I got a part. I've been chosen to sit in the audience and clap and cheer." When you have a chance to clap and cheer, do you take it? If you do, your head is starting to fit your hat size.
Demanding respect is like chasing a butterfly. Chase it, and you'll never catch it. Sit still, and it may light on your shoulder. The Bible says in Proverbs 27:2, "Don't praise yourself. Let someone else do it." Does your self-esteem need attention? You need only pause at the base of the cross and be reminded of this: The maker of the stars would rather die for you than live without you. And that's a fact!
From Traveling Light
Isaiah 47
“Get off your high horse and sit in the dirt,
virgin daughter of Babylon.
No more throne for you—sit on the ground,
daughter of the Chaldeans.
Nobody will be calling you ‘charming’
and ‘alluring’ anymore. Get used to it.
Get a job, any old job:
Clean gutters, scrub toilets.
Hock your gowns and scarves,
put on overalls—the party’s over.
Your nude body will be on public display,
exposed to vulgar taunts.
It’s vengeance time, and I’m taking vengeance.
No one gets let off the hook.”
4-13 Our Redeemer speaks,
named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, The Holy of Israel:
“Shut up and get out of the way,
daughter of Chaldeans.
You’ll no longer be called
‘First Lady of the Kingdoms.’
I was fed up with my people,
thoroughly disgusted with my progeny.
I turned them over to you,
but you had no compassion.
You put old men and women
to cruel, hard labor.
You said, ‘I’m the First Lady.
I’ll always be the pampered darling.’
You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart,
never gave tomorrow a thought.
Well, start thinking, playgirl.
You’re acting like the center of the universe,
Smugly saying to yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.
I’ll never be a widow, I’ll never lose my children.’
Those two things are going to hit you both at once,
suddenly, on the same day:
Spouse and children gone, a total loss,
despite your many enchantments and charms.
You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life,
saying, ‘No one sees me.’
You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out.
What delusion!
Smugly telling yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.’
Ruin descends—
you can’t charm it away.
Disaster strikes—
you can’t cast it off with spells.
Catastrophe, sudden and total—
and you’re totally at sea, totally bewildered!
But don’t give up. From your great repertoire
of enchantments there must be one you haven’t yet tried.
You’ve been at this a long time.
Surely something will work.
I know you’re exhausted trying out remedies,
but don’t give up.
Call in the astrologers and stargazers.
They’re good at this. Surely they can work up something!
14-15 “Fat chance. You’d be grasping at straws
that are already in the fire,
A fire that is even now raging.
Your ‘experts’ are in it and won’t get out.
It’s not a fire for cooking venison stew,
not a fire to warm you on a winter night!
That’s the fate of your friends in sorcery, your magician buddies
you’ve been in cahoots with all your life.
They reel, confused, bumping into one another.
None of them bother to help you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 25, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 15:9–17
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Insight
John’s gospel has a discernible outline. Between the prologue (1:1–18) and the epilogue (ch. 21), John focuses on Jesus’ ministry in word and deed to the masses (1:19–12:50). In the five chapters known as the Upper Room Discourse (chs. 13–17), Jesus specifically addresses His disciples. These chapters comprise roughly 20 percent of the book and cover a very short amount of time. In this section, we discover core truths for believers in Jesus: lessons regarding servanthood and humility (ch. 13); Jesus as the way to the Father (14:6); the promise, ministry, and work of the Holy Spirit (14:15–31; 16:4–15); the command to love (13:31–35); and the need to abide in the Father’s love (15:9–17). In chapters 18–20 John focuses on Jesus’ death and resurrection.
For a visual overview to the book of John, visit bit.ly/2MqOeOR.
Remembering
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13
On Memorial Day, I think of many military veterans but especially my dad and uncles, who served in the military during World War II. They made it home, but in that war hundreds of thousands of families tragically lost loved ones in service to their country. Yet, when asked, my dad and most soldiers from that era would say they were willing to give up their lives to protect their loved ones and stand for what they believed to be right.
When someone dies in defense of their country, John 15:13—“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”—is often recited during the funeral service to honor their sacrifice. But what were the circumstances behind this verse?
When Jesus spoke those words to His disciples during the Last Supper, He was about to die. And, in fact, one of His small group of disciples, Judas, had already left to betray Him (13:18–30). Yet Christ knew all of this and still chose to sacrifice His life for His friends and enemies.
Jesus was willing and ready to die for those who’d one day believe in Him, even for those who were still His enemies (Romans 5:10). In return, He asks His disciples (then and now) to “love each other” as He has loved them (John 15:12). His great love compels us to sacrificially love others—friend and foe alike. By: Alyson Kieda
Reflect & Pray
Before we believed in Jesus, we were His enemies. Yet Jesus died for us. How can you honor and remember Jesus for His death on the cross for you? How can you sacrificially love others?
Jesus, we’re so thankful that You were willing to die for us!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 25, 2020
The Good or The Best?
If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9
As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.
Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.
Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “…walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 25-27; John 9:1-23
Proverbs 16:5 says, "The Lord despises pride." So, get over yourself!
An elementary boy came home from tryouts for the school play. "Mommy, mommy" he announced, "I got a part. I've been chosen to sit in the audience and clap and cheer." When you have a chance to clap and cheer, do you take it? If you do, your head is starting to fit your hat size.
Demanding respect is like chasing a butterfly. Chase it, and you'll never catch it. Sit still, and it may light on your shoulder. The Bible says in Proverbs 27:2, "Don't praise yourself. Let someone else do it." Does your self-esteem need attention? You need only pause at the base of the cross and be reminded of this: The maker of the stars would rather die for you than live without you. And that's a fact!
From Traveling Light
Isaiah 47
“Get off your high horse and sit in the dirt,
virgin daughter of Babylon.
No more throne for you—sit on the ground,
daughter of the Chaldeans.
Nobody will be calling you ‘charming’
and ‘alluring’ anymore. Get used to it.
Get a job, any old job:
Clean gutters, scrub toilets.
Hock your gowns and scarves,
put on overalls—the party’s over.
Your nude body will be on public display,
exposed to vulgar taunts.
It’s vengeance time, and I’m taking vengeance.
No one gets let off the hook.”
4-13 Our Redeemer speaks,
named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, The Holy of Israel:
“Shut up and get out of the way,
daughter of Chaldeans.
You’ll no longer be called
‘First Lady of the Kingdoms.’
I was fed up with my people,
thoroughly disgusted with my progeny.
I turned them over to you,
but you had no compassion.
You put old men and women
to cruel, hard labor.
You said, ‘I’m the First Lady.
I’ll always be the pampered darling.’
You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart,
never gave tomorrow a thought.
Well, start thinking, playgirl.
You’re acting like the center of the universe,
Smugly saying to yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.
I’ll never be a widow, I’ll never lose my children.’
Those two things are going to hit you both at once,
suddenly, on the same day:
Spouse and children gone, a total loss,
despite your many enchantments and charms.
You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life,
saying, ‘No one sees me.’
You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out.
What delusion!
Smugly telling yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.’
Ruin descends—
you can’t charm it away.
Disaster strikes—
you can’t cast it off with spells.
Catastrophe, sudden and total—
and you’re totally at sea, totally bewildered!
But don’t give up. From your great repertoire
of enchantments there must be one you haven’t yet tried.
You’ve been at this a long time.
Surely something will work.
I know you’re exhausted trying out remedies,
but don’t give up.
Call in the astrologers and stargazers.
They’re good at this. Surely they can work up something!
14-15 “Fat chance. You’d be grasping at straws
that are already in the fire,
A fire that is even now raging.
Your ‘experts’ are in it and won’t get out.
It’s not a fire for cooking venison stew,
not a fire to warm you on a winter night!
That’s the fate of your friends in sorcery, your magician buddies
you’ve been in cahoots with all your life.
They reel, confused, bumping into one another.
None of them bother to help you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 25, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 15:9–17
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Insight
John’s gospel has a discernible outline. Between the prologue (1:1–18) and the epilogue (ch. 21), John focuses on Jesus’ ministry in word and deed to the masses (1:19–12:50). In the five chapters known as the Upper Room Discourse (chs. 13–17), Jesus specifically addresses His disciples. These chapters comprise roughly 20 percent of the book and cover a very short amount of time. In this section, we discover core truths for believers in Jesus: lessons regarding servanthood and humility (ch. 13); Jesus as the way to the Father (14:6); the promise, ministry, and work of the Holy Spirit (14:15–31; 16:4–15); the command to love (13:31–35); and the need to abide in the Father’s love (15:9–17). In chapters 18–20 John focuses on Jesus’ death and resurrection.
For a visual overview to the book of John, visit bit.ly/2MqOeOR.
Remembering
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13
On Memorial Day, I think of many military veterans but especially my dad and uncles, who served in the military during World War II. They made it home, but in that war hundreds of thousands of families tragically lost loved ones in service to their country. Yet, when asked, my dad and most soldiers from that era would say they were willing to give up their lives to protect their loved ones and stand for what they believed to be right.
When someone dies in defense of their country, John 15:13—“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”—is often recited during the funeral service to honor their sacrifice. But what were the circumstances behind this verse?
When Jesus spoke those words to His disciples during the Last Supper, He was about to die. And, in fact, one of His small group of disciples, Judas, had already left to betray Him (13:18–30). Yet Christ knew all of this and still chose to sacrifice His life for His friends and enemies.
Jesus was willing and ready to die for those who’d one day believe in Him, even for those who were still His enemies (Romans 5:10). In return, He asks His disciples (then and now) to “love each other” as He has loved them (John 15:12). His great love compels us to sacrificially love others—friend and foe alike. By: Alyson Kieda
Reflect & Pray
Before we believed in Jesus, we were His enemies. Yet Jesus died for us. How can you honor and remember Jesus for His death on the cross for you? How can you sacrificially love others?
Jesus, we’re so thankful that You were willing to die for us!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 25, 2020
The Good or The Best?
If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9
As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.
Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.
Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “…walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 25-27; John 9:1-23
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Romans 8:22-39, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: At Once, Man and God
Christ—at once, man and God. Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Christ there is all of God in a human body.” Jesus was not a godlike man, nor a manlike God. He was God-man. What do we do with such a person? One thing is certain, we can’t ignore Him. He is the single most significant person who ever lived. Forget MVP; He is the entire league. The head of the parade? Hardly. No one else shares the street.
Dismiss Him? We can’t. Resist Him? Equally difficult.
Don’t we need a God-man Savior? A just-God Jesus could make us but not understand us. A just-man Jesus could love us but never save us. But a God-man Jesus? Near enough to touch. Strong enough to trust. A Savior found by millions to be irresistible.
As the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:8, nothing compares to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
from Next Door Savior
Romans 8:22-39
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Acts 2:42–47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Insight
Acts 2 describes the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost when God, in fulfillment of prophecies and promises (Isaiah 32:15; Ezekiel 36:26–27; 39:29; Joel 2:28–32; John 16:7), sent the Holy Spirit to indwell those who believed in Jesus (Acts 2:1–4). Three thousand people (2:41) were added to the one hundred twenty-member congregation (1:15). This first church was a growing, gracious, and generous church. The Greek word for “fellowship” (2:42) is koinonia and carries the meaning of “participation, sharing.” Believers participated in a shared identity and spirituality—learning spiritual truths, devoting themselves to fellowship, remembering Jesus’ death, depending on God, experiencing His power, and showing extravagant acts of generosity toward the needy (vv. 42–47).
Talking Tables
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. Acts 2:46
Loneliness is one of the greatest threats to our sense of well-being, affecting our health through our behaviors on social media, food consumption, and the like. One study suggests that nearly two-thirds of all people—regardless of age or gender—feel lonely at least some of the time. One British supermarket has created “talking tables” in their store cafés as a way to foster connection between people. Those looking for human interaction simply seat themselves at a table designated for that purpose, joining others or indicating a desire to be joined. Conversation ensues, providing a sense of connection and community.
The people of the early church were committed to shared connection too. Without each other, they would likely have felt very alone in the practice of their faith, which was still new to the world. Not only did they “[devote] themselves to the apostles’ teaching” to learn what following Jesus meant, they also “[met] together in the temple courts” and “broke bread in their homes” for mutual encouragement and fellowship (Acts 2:42, 46).
We need human connection; God designed us that way! Painful seasons of loneliness point to that need. Like the people of the early church, it’s important for us to engage in the human companionship our well-being requires and to offer it to those around us who also need it. By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
How can you intentionally connect with someone today? How might you be overlooking opportunities for friendship?
Help us, God, to seek connection for our sake and that of others!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, May 24, 2020
The Delight of Despair
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. —Revelation 1:17
It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Yet when He suddenly appears to you with totally unfamiliar characteristics, the only thing you can do is fall “at His feet as dead.” There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awesomeness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair. You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.
“He laid His right hand on me…” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that?
Take a look at some of the things that cause despair. There is despair which has no delight, no limits whatsoever, and no hope of anything brighter. But the delight of despair comes when “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (Romans 7:18). I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 22-24; John 8:28-59
Christ—at once, man and God. Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Christ there is all of God in a human body.” Jesus was not a godlike man, nor a manlike God. He was God-man. What do we do with such a person? One thing is certain, we can’t ignore Him. He is the single most significant person who ever lived. Forget MVP; He is the entire league. The head of the parade? Hardly. No one else shares the street.
Dismiss Him? We can’t. Resist Him? Equally difficult.
Don’t we need a God-man Savior? A just-God Jesus could make us but not understand us. A just-man Jesus could love us but never save us. But a God-man Jesus? Near enough to touch. Strong enough to trust. A Savior found by millions to be irresistible.
As the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:8, nothing compares to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
from Next Door Savior
Romans 8:22-39
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Acts 2:42–47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Insight
Acts 2 describes the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost when God, in fulfillment of prophecies and promises (Isaiah 32:15; Ezekiel 36:26–27; 39:29; Joel 2:28–32; John 16:7), sent the Holy Spirit to indwell those who believed in Jesus (Acts 2:1–4). Three thousand people (2:41) were added to the one hundred twenty-member congregation (1:15). This first church was a growing, gracious, and generous church. The Greek word for “fellowship” (2:42) is koinonia and carries the meaning of “participation, sharing.” Believers participated in a shared identity and spirituality—learning spiritual truths, devoting themselves to fellowship, remembering Jesus’ death, depending on God, experiencing His power, and showing extravagant acts of generosity toward the needy (vv. 42–47).
Talking Tables
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. Acts 2:46
Loneliness is one of the greatest threats to our sense of well-being, affecting our health through our behaviors on social media, food consumption, and the like. One study suggests that nearly two-thirds of all people—regardless of age or gender—feel lonely at least some of the time. One British supermarket has created “talking tables” in their store cafés as a way to foster connection between people. Those looking for human interaction simply seat themselves at a table designated for that purpose, joining others or indicating a desire to be joined. Conversation ensues, providing a sense of connection and community.
The people of the early church were committed to shared connection too. Without each other, they would likely have felt very alone in the practice of their faith, which was still new to the world. Not only did they “[devote] themselves to the apostles’ teaching” to learn what following Jesus meant, they also “[met] together in the temple courts” and “broke bread in their homes” for mutual encouragement and fellowship (Acts 2:42, 46).
We need human connection; God designed us that way! Painful seasons of loneliness point to that need. Like the people of the early church, it’s important for us to engage in the human companionship our well-being requires and to offer it to those around us who also need it. By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
How can you intentionally connect with someone today? How might you be overlooking opportunities for friendship?
Help us, God, to seek connection for our sake and that of others!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, May 24, 2020
The Delight of Despair
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. —Revelation 1:17
It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Yet when He suddenly appears to you with totally unfamiliar characteristics, the only thing you can do is fall “at His feet as dead.” There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awesomeness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair. You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.
“He laid His right hand on me…” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that?
Take a look at some of the things that cause despair. There is despair which has no delight, no limits whatsoever, and no hope of anything brighter. But the delight of despair comes when “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (Romans 7:18). I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 22-24; John 8:28-59
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Isaiah 46, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Nothing to Be Proud About
Do art critics give awards to the canvas? Can you imagine a scalpel growing smug after a successful heart transplant? Of course not. And the message of the Twenty-Third Psalm is that we have nothing to be proud about either. We have rest, salvation, blessings, and a home in heaven-and we did nothing to earn any of it. Who did the work? The answer threads through the Psalm. . .
He makes me. . .
He leads me. . .
He restores my soul. . .
You are with me. . .
Your rod and staff comfort me. . .
You prepare a table. . .
You anoint my head. . .
And just to make sure we get the point, right in the middle of the poem, David declares, the shepherd leads his sheep, not for our names' sake, but for "His name's sake!"
From Traveling Light
Isaiah 46
The god Bel falls down, god Nebo slumps.
The no-god hunks of wood are loaded on mules
And have to be hauled off,
wearing out the poor mules—
Dead weight, burdens who can’t bear burdens,
hauled off to captivity.
3-4 “Listen to me, family of Jacob,
everyone that’s left of the family of Israel.
I’ve been carrying you on my back
from the day you were born,
And I’ll keep on carrying you when you’re old.
I’ll be there, bearing you when you’re old and gray.
I’ve done it and will keep on doing it,
carrying you on my back, saving you.
5-7 “So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable?
Can you picture me without reducing me?
People with a lot of money
hire craftsmen to make them gods.
The artisan delivers the god,
and they kneel and worship it!
They carry it around in holy parades,
then take it home and put it on a shelf.
And there it sits, day in and day out,
a dependable god, always right where you put it.
Say anything you want to it, it never talks back.
Of course, it never does anything either!
8-11 “Think about this. Wrap your minds around it.
This is serious business, rebels. Take it to heart.
Remember your history,
your long and rich history.
I am God, the only God you’ve had or ever will have—
incomparable, irreplaceable—
From the very beginning
telling you what the ending will be,
All along letting you in
on what is going to happen,
Assuring you, ‘I’m in this for the long haul,
I’ll do exactly what I set out to do,’
Calling that eagle, Cyrus, out of the east,
from a far country the man I chose to help me.
I’ve said it, and I’ll most certainly do it.
I’ve planned it, so it’s as good as done.
12-13 “Now listen to me:
You’re a hardheaded bunch and hard to help.
I’m ready to help you right now.
Deliverance is not a long-range plan.
Salvation isn’t on hold.
I’m putting salvation to work in Zion now,
and glory in Israel.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 8:12–16
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me.
Insight
The gospel records fall into two categories: the Synoptic Gospels and the gospel of John. The “Synoptics,” which means “with a common view,” are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Although they offer varying details to help them tell the story of Jesus in a unique way, they still have a common perspective because they often tell the same stories. John’s gospel is very distinct from the Synoptics, containing 92 percent unique material. One distinctive of John’s gospel is the emphasis on themes of light and truth. John expresses the reality that Jesus is the embodiment of truth and light.
Keepers of the Light
For God . . . made his light shine in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 4:6
They call them “Keepers of the Light.”
At the lighthouse on the cape of Hatteras Island just off the North Carolina coast of the United States, there’s a memorial to those who’ve tended the light stations there since 1803. Shortly after the existing structure was moved inland because of shoreline erosion, the names of the keepers were etched on the old foundation stones and arranged into an amphitheater shape facing the new site. That way—as a placard explains—today’s visitors can follow in the historical keepers’ footsteps and “watch over” the lighthouse as well.
Jesus is the ultimate light-giver. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). That’s a radical thing for anyone to claim. But Jesus said it to affirm His relationship with His heavenly Father, the Creator of light and life who sent Him.
When we look to Jesus for salvation and follow His teaching, we’re restored in relationship with God, and He gives us new power and purpose. His transforming life and love—“the light of all mankind” (1:4)—shines in us and through us and out to a dark and sometimes dangerous world.
As believers in Jesus, we become “keepers of the light.” May others see His light shine from us and discover the life and hope He alone can give! By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
In what practical ways can you shine Jesus’ light? Where is God calling you to be obedient to Him today?
Jesus, I praise You for Your light and love. Help me to shine for You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Our Careful Unbelief
…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. —Matthew 6:25
Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.
“…do not worry about your life….” Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No— “the cares of this world” (Matthew 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, “I will not trust when I cannot see”— and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 19-21; John 8:1-27
Do art critics give awards to the canvas? Can you imagine a scalpel growing smug after a successful heart transplant? Of course not. And the message of the Twenty-Third Psalm is that we have nothing to be proud about either. We have rest, salvation, blessings, and a home in heaven-and we did nothing to earn any of it. Who did the work? The answer threads through the Psalm. . .
He makes me. . .
He leads me. . .
He restores my soul. . .
You are with me. . .
Your rod and staff comfort me. . .
You prepare a table. . .
You anoint my head. . .
And just to make sure we get the point, right in the middle of the poem, David declares, the shepherd leads his sheep, not for our names' sake, but for "His name's sake!"
From Traveling Light
Isaiah 46
The god Bel falls down, god Nebo slumps.
The no-god hunks of wood are loaded on mules
And have to be hauled off,
wearing out the poor mules—
Dead weight, burdens who can’t bear burdens,
hauled off to captivity.
3-4 “Listen to me, family of Jacob,
everyone that’s left of the family of Israel.
I’ve been carrying you on my back
from the day you were born,
And I’ll keep on carrying you when you’re old.
I’ll be there, bearing you when you’re old and gray.
I’ve done it and will keep on doing it,
carrying you on my back, saving you.
5-7 “So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable?
Can you picture me without reducing me?
People with a lot of money
hire craftsmen to make them gods.
The artisan delivers the god,
and they kneel and worship it!
They carry it around in holy parades,
then take it home and put it on a shelf.
And there it sits, day in and day out,
a dependable god, always right where you put it.
Say anything you want to it, it never talks back.
Of course, it never does anything either!
8-11 “Think about this. Wrap your minds around it.
This is serious business, rebels. Take it to heart.
Remember your history,
your long and rich history.
I am God, the only God you’ve had or ever will have—
incomparable, irreplaceable—
From the very beginning
telling you what the ending will be,
All along letting you in
on what is going to happen,
Assuring you, ‘I’m in this for the long haul,
I’ll do exactly what I set out to do,’
Calling that eagle, Cyrus, out of the east,
from a far country the man I chose to help me.
I’ve said it, and I’ll most certainly do it.
I’ve planned it, so it’s as good as done.
12-13 “Now listen to me:
You’re a hardheaded bunch and hard to help.
I’m ready to help you right now.
Deliverance is not a long-range plan.
Salvation isn’t on hold.
I’m putting salvation to work in Zion now,
and glory in Israel.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 8:12–16
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me.
Insight
The gospel records fall into two categories: the Synoptic Gospels and the gospel of John. The “Synoptics,” which means “with a common view,” are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Although they offer varying details to help them tell the story of Jesus in a unique way, they still have a common perspective because they often tell the same stories. John’s gospel is very distinct from the Synoptics, containing 92 percent unique material. One distinctive of John’s gospel is the emphasis on themes of light and truth. John expresses the reality that Jesus is the embodiment of truth and light.
Keepers of the Light
For God . . . made his light shine in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 4:6
They call them “Keepers of the Light.”
At the lighthouse on the cape of Hatteras Island just off the North Carolina coast of the United States, there’s a memorial to those who’ve tended the light stations there since 1803. Shortly after the existing structure was moved inland because of shoreline erosion, the names of the keepers were etched on the old foundation stones and arranged into an amphitheater shape facing the new site. That way—as a placard explains—today’s visitors can follow in the historical keepers’ footsteps and “watch over” the lighthouse as well.
Jesus is the ultimate light-giver. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). That’s a radical thing for anyone to claim. But Jesus said it to affirm His relationship with His heavenly Father, the Creator of light and life who sent Him.
When we look to Jesus for salvation and follow His teaching, we’re restored in relationship with God, and He gives us new power and purpose. His transforming life and love—“the light of all mankind” (1:4)—shines in us and through us and out to a dark and sometimes dangerous world.
As believers in Jesus, we become “keepers of the light.” May others see His light shine from us and discover the life and hope He alone can give! By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
In what practical ways can you shine Jesus’ light? Where is God calling you to be obedient to Him today?
Jesus, I praise You for Your light and love. Help me to shine for You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Our Careful Unbelief
…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. —Matthew 6:25
Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.
“…do not worry about your life….” Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No— “the cares of this world” (Matthew 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, “I will not trust when I cannot see”— and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 19-21; John 8:1-27
Friday, May 22, 2020
Isaiah 45, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: TRUST GOD’S TRAINING
Each day has a pop quiz, and some seasons are like final exams. Brutal, sudden pitfalls of stress, sickness, or sadness. What is the purpose of the test? James 1:3-4 says, “For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.” Test, test, test!
This chapter in your life may look like rehab, smell like unemployment, sound like a hospital, but you’re in training. God hasn’t forgotten you, just the opposite. He has chosen to train you. Forget the notion that God doesn’t see your struggle. Quite the contrary—God is fully engaged. He is the Potter, we are the clay. He’s the Shepherd, we’re the sheep. He’s the Teacher, we’re the students. Trust His training. You’ll get through this.
Isaiah 45
God’s Message to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand
To give the task of taming the nations,
of terrifying their kings—
He gave him free rein,
no restrictions:
“I’ll go ahead of you,
clearing and paving the road.
I’ll break down bronze city gates,
smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances.
I’ll lead you to buried treasures,
secret caches of valuables—
Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God,
the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
It’s because of my dear servant Jacob,
Israel my chosen,
That I’ve singled you out, called you by name,
and given you this privileged work.
And you don’t even know me!
I am God, the only God there is.
Besides me there are no real gods.
I’m the one who armed you for this work,
though you don’t even know me,
So that everyone, from east to west, will know
that I have no god-rivals.
I am God, the only God there is.
I form light and create darkness,
I make harmonies and create discords.
I, God, do all these things.
8-10 “Open up, heavens, and rain.
Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!
Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;
sprout right living.
I, God, generate all this.
But doom to you who fight your Maker—
you’re a pot at odds with the potter!
Does clay talk back to the potter:
‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’
Would a sperm say to a father,
‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’
Or a fetus to a mother,
‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’”
11-13 Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel’s Maker, says:
“Do you question who or what I’m making?
Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?
I made earth,
and I created man and woman to live on it.
I handcrafted the skies
and direct all the constellations in their turnings.
And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move.
I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him.
He will build my city.
He will bring home my exiles.
I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him.
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.”
14 God says:
“The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia,
and those statuesque Sabeans
Will all come over to you—all yours.
Docile in chains, they’ll follow you,
Hands folded in reverence, praying before you:
‘Amazing! God is with you!
There is no other God—none.’”
15-17 Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes,
God of Israel, Savior God.
Humiliated, all those others
will be ashamed to show their faces in public.
Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols
won’t know what to do with themselves.
The people of Israel, though, are saved by you, God,
saved with an eternal salvation.
They won’t be ashamed,
they won’t be at loose ends, ever.
18-24 God, Creator of the heavens—
he is, remember, God.
Maker of earth—
he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch.
He didn’t go to all that trouble
to just leave it empty, nothing in it.
He made it to be lived in.
This God says:
“I am God,
the one and only.
I don’t just talk to myself
or mumble under my breath.
I never told Jacob,
‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.’
I am God. I work out in the open,
saying what’s right, setting things right.
So gather around, come on in,
all you refugees and castoffs.
They don’t seem to know much, do they—
those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood,
praying for help to a dead stick?
So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence.
Put your heads together. Make your case.
Who told you, and a long time ago, what’s going on here?
Who made sense of things for you?
Wasn’t I the one? God?
It had to be me. I’m the only God there is—
The only God who does things right
and knows how to help.
So turn to me and be helped—saved!—
everyone, whoever and wherever you are.
I am God,
the only God there is, the one and only.
I promise in my own name:
Every word out of my mouth does what it says.
I never take back what I say.
Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me.
Everyone is going to end up saying of me,
‘Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!’”
24-25 All who have raged against him
will be brought before him,
disgraced by their unbelief.
And all who are connected with Israel
will have a robust, praising, good life in God!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 22, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Lamentations 3:49–66
My eyes will flow unceasingly,
without relief,
50 until the Lord looks down
from heaven and sees.
51 What I see brings grief to my soul
because of all the women of my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird.
53 They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me;
54 the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to perish.
55 I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”
58 You, Lord, took up my case;
you redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.
Uphold my cause!
60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
61 Lord, you have heard their insults,
all their plots against me—
62 what my enemies whisper and mutter
against me all day long.
63 Look at them! Sitting or standing,
they mock me in their songs.
64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord,
for what their hands have done.
65 Put a veil over their hearts,
and may your curse be on them!
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the Lord.
Insight
The book of Lamentations gives us a poet’s picture of the aftermath of war. Jerusalem had been invaded by Babylonian warlords in 586 bc (Jeremiah 52). The God of gods had turned His chosen people over to their enemies, as He had threatened to do from the beginning if they persistently turned their backs on Him and forgot their mission to be a light to other nations (Deuteronomy 28).
The fluid emotions of the poet reflect a nation that now had nowhere to turn but to memories of their past and to hope in the everlasting God who, for this seemingly endless moment, seemed so far away (Lamentations 5:19–22).
Take Your Tears to God
My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief, until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees. Lamentations 3:49–50
Last summer, an orca named Talequah gave birth. Talequah’s pod of killer whales was endangered, and her newborn was their hope for the future. But the calf lived for less than an hour. In a show of grief that was watched by people around the world, Talequah pushed her dead calf through the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean for seventeen days before letting her go.
Sometimes believers in Jesus have a hard time knowing what to do with grief. Perhaps we fear that our sorrow might look like a lack of hope. But the Bible gives us many examples of humans crying out to God in grief. Lament and hope can both be part of a faithful response.
Lamentations is a book of five poems that express the sorrow of people who have lost their home. They’ve been hunted by enemies and were near death (3:52–54), and they weep and call on God to bring justice (v. 64). They cry out to God not because they have lost hope, but because they believe God is listening. And when they call, God does come near (v. 57).
It’s not wrong to lament the broken things in our world or in your life. God is always listening, and you can be sure that God will look down from heaven and see you. By: Amy Peterson
Reflect & Pray
How can you practice bringing all your emotions to God? When have you felt God draw near to you in your sadness?
Loving God, help us to remember that it’s right to lament wrongness before we can begin to change it.
To learn more about what Lamentations says about pain, visit christianuniversity.org/OT221.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 22, 2020
The Explanation For Our Difficulties
…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21
If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.
God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 16-18; John 7:28-53
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 22, 2020
The Illusion of Being Covered - #8705
Hans Christian Andersen wrote this little fable, The Emperor's New Clothes. And when he did, he was displaying some keen insight into human nature. The Emperor in the story was a vain man, whose main focus in life was to dress in these elegant clothes and show them off to his people. Two scoundrels exploited that vanity by offering to make for the Emperor an extraordinary garment made from cloth so light and so fine that it looked invisible - invisible, that was, to anyone too stupid or incompetent to appreciate its quality. Which none of his officials wanted to be, for fear of losing their position. So they simply expressed admiration for the garment that didn't really exist. Even the Emperor had to fake his response to the garment lest he appear stupid and incompetent, right? So at that point, the scoundrels convinced the Emperor to appear before his subjects, wearing only his magnificent new clothes. And, of course, the crowd cheered for the clothes that weren't there. Who wants to be stupid, right? Until a little child did what little children do: tell it like it really is. He just went up to the royal carriage and blurted, "The Emperor is naked."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Illusion of Being Covered."
The Emperor thought he was covered. It didn't change the facts. He wasn't covered. Now, of course, that's fiction. There's a non-fiction version of that same phenomenon, and the consequences of that self-deception are not amusing. They're deadly.
This self-deception began a long time ago, actually in the Garden of Eden with the first man and woman. They had disobeyed God's boundaries, just like you and I have. Even though God had provided everything they needed inside the boundaries, they went outside them, just like you and me. They knew God had announced that sin's penalty must be spiritual death, separation from God, who was their Source. Again, just like you and me. Suddenly experiencing guilt and shame - something God never meant for us to experience - they realized their nakedness and they tried to cover it with fig leaves.
In Genesis 3:7, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves...and they hid from the Lord God. But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'" God came looking for the people who had cut themselves off from Him. There's you and me again. Jesus is God come looking for you and me, in spite of our sin against Him.
Adam and Eve made the same mistake as the Emperor with the new clothes. They thought they were covered as far as God is concerned. Well, they're not. Then, the Bible says, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." Of course, that meant animals had to die for them to be covered. The only covering God could accept was the one that required the shedding of blood, because sin has a death penalty.
So many of us are thinking we're going to be okay with God, that we'll make it into heaven because of all our religion, all the good we've done - fig leaves. The best we can do, but nowhere near enough to satisfy a perfect God. Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." It took the shedding of the blood of the sinless Son of God to cover your sin and mine. And your only hope is putting all your trust in Him.
Today's the day to face the hard but life-saving truth: you are not covered without Jesus. You're not ready to meet God; you're not ready for eternity. But you can be, from this day on. If you'll admit that the fig leaves of all your goodness, and religion, and church aren't enough and that Jesus is your only hope.
If you've never done that, and you want to know you have what Jesus died to give you, tell Him that right now, that you're giving up the running of your life. That you know the penalty for that is a death penalty. That you believe He loved you enough to pay for it and that you want to belong to Him by pinning all your hopes on Him.
If you want to find information to be sure you belong to Him, get to our website today - ANewStory.com. Because this day, Jesus has come close to bring you into a relationship with Him.
Please, don't miss Him.
Each day has a pop quiz, and some seasons are like final exams. Brutal, sudden pitfalls of stress, sickness, or sadness. What is the purpose of the test? James 1:3-4 says, “For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.” Test, test, test!
This chapter in your life may look like rehab, smell like unemployment, sound like a hospital, but you’re in training. God hasn’t forgotten you, just the opposite. He has chosen to train you. Forget the notion that God doesn’t see your struggle. Quite the contrary—God is fully engaged. He is the Potter, we are the clay. He’s the Shepherd, we’re the sheep. He’s the Teacher, we’re the students. Trust His training. You’ll get through this.
Isaiah 45
God’s Message to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand
To give the task of taming the nations,
of terrifying their kings—
He gave him free rein,
no restrictions:
“I’ll go ahead of you,
clearing and paving the road.
I’ll break down bronze city gates,
smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances.
I’ll lead you to buried treasures,
secret caches of valuables—
Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God,
the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
It’s because of my dear servant Jacob,
Israel my chosen,
That I’ve singled you out, called you by name,
and given you this privileged work.
And you don’t even know me!
I am God, the only God there is.
Besides me there are no real gods.
I’m the one who armed you for this work,
though you don’t even know me,
So that everyone, from east to west, will know
that I have no god-rivals.
I am God, the only God there is.
I form light and create darkness,
I make harmonies and create discords.
I, God, do all these things.
8-10 “Open up, heavens, and rain.
Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!
Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;
sprout right living.
I, God, generate all this.
But doom to you who fight your Maker—
you’re a pot at odds with the potter!
Does clay talk back to the potter:
‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’
Would a sperm say to a father,
‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’
Or a fetus to a mother,
‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’”
11-13 Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel’s Maker, says:
“Do you question who or what I’m making?
Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?
I made earth,
and I created man and woman to live on it.
I handcrafted the skies
and direct all the constellations in their turnings.
And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move.
I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him.
He will build my city.
He will bring home my exiles.
I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him.
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.”
14 God says:
“The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia,
and those statuesque Sabeans
Will all come over to you—all yours.
Docile in chains, they’ll follow you,
Hands folded in reverence, praying before you:
‘Amazing! God is with you!
There is no other God—none.’”
15-17 Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes,
God of Israel, Savior God.
Humiliated, all those others
will be ashamed to show their faces in public.
Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols
won’t know what to do with themselves.
The people of Israel, though, are saved by you, God,
saved with an eternal salvation.
They won’t be ashamed,
they won’t be at loose ends, ever.
18-24 God, Creator of the heavens—
he is, remember, God.
Maker of earth—
he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch.
He didn’t go to all that trouble
to just leave it empty, nothing in it.
He made it to be lived in.
This God says:
“I am God,
the one and only.
I don’t just talk to myself
or mumble under my breath.
I never told Jacob,
‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.’
I am God. I work out in the open,
saying what’s right, setting things right.
So gather around, come on in,
all you refugees and castoffs.
They don’t seem to know much, do they—
those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood,
praying for help to a dead stick?
So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence.
Put your heads together. Make your case.
Who told you, and a long time ago, what’s going on here?
Who made sense of things for you?
Wasn’t I the one? God?
It had to be me. I’m the only God there is—
The only God who does things right
and knows how to help.
So turn to me and be helped—saved!—
everyone, whoever and wherever you are.
I am God,
the only God there is, the one and only.
I promise in my own name:
Every word out of my mouth does what it says.
I never take back what I say.
Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me.
Everyone is going to end up saying of me,
‘Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!’”
24-25 All who have raged against him
will be brought before him,
disgraced by their unbelief.
And all who are connected with Israel
will have a robust, praising, good life in God!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 22, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Lamentations 3:49–66
My eyes will flow unceasingly,
without relief,
50 until the Lord looks down
from heaven and sees.
51 What I see brings grief to my soul
because of all the women of my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird.
53 They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me;
54 the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to perish.
55 I called on your name, Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”
58 You, Lord, took up my case;
you redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.
Uphold my cause!
60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
61 Lord, you have heard their insults,
all their plots against me—
62 what my enemies whisper and mutter
against me all day long.
63 Look at them! Sitting or standing,
they mock me in their songs.
64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord,
for what their hands have done.
65 Put a veil over their hearts,
and may your curse be on them!
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the Lord.
Insight
The book of Lamentations gives us a poet’s picture of the aftermath of war. Jerusalem had been invaded by Babylonian warlords in 586 bc (Jeremiah 52). The God of gods had turned His chosen people over to their enemies, as He had threatened to do from the beginning if they persistently turned their backs on Him and forgot their mission to be a light to other nations (Deuteronomy 28).
The fluid emotions of the poet reflect a nation that now had nowhere to turn but to memories of their past and to hope in the everlasting God who, for this seemingly endless moment, seemed so far away (Lamentations 5:19–22).
Take Your Tears to God
My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief, until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees. Lamentations 3:49–50
Last summer, an orca named Talequah gave birth. Talequah’s pod of killer whales was endangered, and her newborn was their hope for the future. But the calf lived for less than an hour. In a show of grief that was watched by people around the world, Talequah pushed her dead calf through the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean for seventeen days before letting her go.
Sometimes believers in Jesus have a hard time knowing what to do with grief. Perhaps we fear that our sorrow might look like a lack of hope. But the Bible gives us many examples of humans crying out to God in grief. Lament and hope can both be part of a faithful response.
Lamentations is a book of five poems that express the sorrow of people who have lost their home. They’ve been hunted by enemies and were near death (3:52–54), and they weep and call on God to bring justice (v. 64). They cry out to God not because they have lost hope, but because they believe God is listening. And when they call, God does come near (v. 57).
It’s not wrong to lament the broken things in our world or in your life. God is always listening, and you can be sure that God will look down from heaven and see you. By: Amy Peterson
Reflect & Pray
How can you practice bringing all your emotions to God? When have you felt God draw near to you in your sadness?
Loving God, help us to remember that it’s right to lament wrongness before we can begin to change it.
To learn more about what Lamentations says about pain, visit christianuniversity.org/OT221.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 22, 2020
The Explanation For Our Difficulties
…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21
If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.
God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 16-18; John 7:28-53
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 22, 2020
The Illusion of Being Covered - #8705
Hans Christian Andersen wrote this little fable, The Emperor's New Clothes. And when he did, he was displaying some keen insight into human nature. The Emperor in the story was a vain man, whose main focus in life was to dress in these elegant clothes and show them off to his people. Two scoundrels exploited that vanity by offering to make for the Emperor an extraordinary garment made from cloth so light and so fine that it looked invisible - invisible, that was, to anyone too stupid or incompetent to appreciate its quality. Which none of his officials wanted to be, for fear of losing their position. So they simply expressed admiration for the garment that didn't really exist. Even the Emperor had to fake his response to the garment lest he appear stupid and incompetent, right? So at that point, the scoundrels convinced the Emperor to appear before his subjects, wearing only his magnificent new clothes. And, of course, the crowd cheered for the clothes that weren't there. Who wants to be stupid, right? Until a little child did what little children do: tell it like it really is. He just went up to the royal carriage and blurted, "The Emperor is naked."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Illusion of Being Covered."
The Emperor thought he was covered. It didn't change the facts. He wasn't covered. Now, of course, that's fiction. There's a non-fiction version of that same phenomenon, and the consequences of that self-deception are not amusing. They're deadly.
This self-deception began a long time ago, actually in the Garden of Eden with the first man and woman. They had disobeyed God's boundaries, just like you and I have. Even though God had provided everything they needed inside the boundaries, they went outside them, just like you and me. They knew God had announced that sin's penalty must be spiritual death, separation from God, who was their Source. Again, just like you and me. Suddenly experiencing guilt and shame - something God never meant for us to experience - they realized their nakedness and they tried to cover it with fig leaves.
In Genesis 3:7, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves...and they hid from the Lord God. But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'" God came looking for the people who had cut themselves off from Him. There's you and me again. Jesus is God come looking for you and me, in spite of our sin against Him.
Adam and Eve made the same mistake as the Emperor with the new clothes. They thought they were covered as far as God is concerned. Well, they're not. Then, the Bible says, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." Of course, that meant animals had to die for them to be covered. The only covering God could accept was the one that required the shedding of blood, because sin has a death penalty.
So many of us are thinking we're going to be okay with God, that we'll make it into heaven because of all our religion, all the good we've done - fig leaves. The best we can do, but nowhere near enough to satisfy a perfect God. Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." It took the shedding of the blood of the sinless Son of God to cover your sin and mine. And your only hope is putting all your trust in Him.
Today's the day to face the hard but life-saving truth: you are not covered without Jesus. You're not ready to meet God; you're not ready for eternity. But you can be, from this day on. If you'll admit that the fig leaves of all your goodness, and religion, and church aren't enough and that Jesus is your only hope.
If you've never done that, and you want to know you have what Jesus died to give you, tell Him that right now, that you're giving up the running of your life. That you know the penalty for that is a death penalty. That you believe He loved you enough to pay for it and that you want to belong to Him by pinning all your hopes on Him.
If you want to find information to be sure you belong to Him, get to our website today - ANewStory.com. Because this day, Jesus has come close to bring you into a relationship with Him.
Please, don't miss Him.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Romans 8:1-21, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: FOR GOD’S PURPOSE
In 1965 Howard Rutledge parachuted into North Vietnam and spent the next several years in a prison in Hanoi, locked in a filthy cell, breathing stale, rotten air, trying to keep his sanity. Few of us will ever face the conditions of a POW camp. Yet, to one degree or another, we all spend time behind bars. After half-a-century of marriage, my friend’s wife began to lose her memory. A young mother just called, diagnosed with lupus. Why would God permit such imprisonment? To what purpose?
Jeremiah 30 in verse 24 promises, “The Lord will not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the intents of His mind.” This season in which you find yourself may puzzle you, but it doesn’t bewilder God. He will use it for His purpose. You will get through this.
Romans 8:1-21
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
3-4 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
18-21 That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 2:1–4
This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Insight
Against the backdrop of gross injustice, moral failure, and spiritual unfaithfulness, Isaiah warned a guilty Judah of God’s judgment (Isaiah 1–12) through the Babylonian exile (39:6–7). Isaiah also prophesied of God’s grace (chs. 40–55) and a future restoration for Judah (chs. 11, 56–66). In Isaiah 12, we’re given a glimpse of Judah’s glorious future. Jerusalem will become the world’s most important city and in the midst of the city will be a magnificent temple. World peace will become a reality. Instead of fighting the Jews, the gentile nations will stream to Jerusalem to seek God. God’s people will be “a light for the Gentiles, that [His] salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (49:6). Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah (735–725 BC), prophesied a similar vision in Micah 4:1–3.
The Knife Angel
Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Isaiah 2:4
When knife crime rose across the United Kingdom, the British Ironwork Centre came up with an idea. Working with local police forces, the Centre built and placed two hundred deposit boxes around the country and ran an amnesty campaign. One hundred thousand knives were anonymously surrendered, some still with blood on their blades. These were then shipped to artist Alfie Bradley, who blunted them, inscribed some with the names of young knife-crime victims, plus messages of regret from ex-offenders. All 100,000 weapons were then welded together to create the Knife Angel—a twenty-seven-foot-high angelic sculpture with shimmering steel wings.
When I stood before the Knife Angel, I wondered how many thousands of wounds had been prevented by its existence. I thought too of Isaiah’s vision of the new heavens and earth (Isaiah 65:17), a place where children won’t die young (v. 20) or grow up in crime-breeding poverty (vv. 22–23), a place where knife crime is no more because all swords have been reshaped and given more creative purposes (2:4).
That new world isn’t yet here, but we are to pray and serve until its arrival (Matthew 6:10). In its own way, the Knife Angel gives us a glimpse of God’s promised future. Swords become plow shares. Weapons become artworks. What other redemptive projects can we conjure up to glimpse that future a little more? By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
What inspires you to combat evil? How can you work for peace in your community?
Jesus, we can’t wait until the world is at peace under Your reign. Move us by Your Spirit to help see Your kingdom come in our communities.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Having God’s “Unreasonable” Faith
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew 6:33
When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “…seek first the kingdom of God….” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.
“…do not worry about your life…” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed— no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Don’t make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God.” Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God first, and everything else second.
It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 13-15; John 7:1-27
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 21, 2020
When it Looks Like You Should Turn Back - #8704
When you drive into Texas, these signs say, "Don't mess with Texas." One reason might be the weather in Texas! And, you know, if you just watch the national weather on any given day from spring into the fall and you're likely to see the color red. That's for severe thunderstorms or possible tornadoes. Our son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter were driving across the Texas panhandle one spring day, and sure enough, they drove into one of those really nasty weather fronts. Amarillo, Texas, was behind them. New Mexico was ahead of them. The sky was featuring that special shade of tornadic green. The rain was torrential and the clouds were growing those little fingers, you know, that sometimes turn into tornadoes. Our son decided it was time to call his brother and see what the Internet was saying about this weather. His question: "Shall I keep going or turn back to Amarillo?" The answer: "Just keep going, man. Twenty more miles and you'll be in bright sunshine!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When it Looks Like You Should Turn Back."
It could be that your journey right now is taking you through a very dark and stormy time. There's danger, there's apprehension, there's questions about which way to go, and turning back or bailing out looks like it might be the way to go. But your Father in heaven can see the whole road, and today He's saying to you, "Just keep going. Drive a few more miles and you'll start to see the sunshine!"
The danger is that you'll turn back just before the breakthrough; just before the answer to your prayers. There's a vivid, real-life example of what that looks like in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 14, beginning with verse 24. Jesus has sent His disciples on ahead of Him. They're crossing the unpredictable Sea of Galilee in a boat when suddenly their boat is being "buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it." "Buffeted by the waves." Does that sound like a fair description of how you feel right now?
The Bible goes on to tell us that "during the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified ... But Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.' 'Lord, if it's You,' Peter replied, 'tell me to come to You on the water.' 'Come,' He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' He said, 'why did you doubt?'"
You started down the road you're on by faith, counting on Jesus to get you there. And, like Peter, the wind and the rain and the waves are brutal right now. So you've stopped focusing on Jesus and you started focusing on your fears or what you can do, and you're sinking. People criticize Peter for losing faith, but excuse me, he's the only one who even had enough faith to even get out of the boat. But, sadly, it was what I call "halfway there" faith; enough faith to get you halfway there.
It's not the storm that's going to sink you. It's going to be "halfway there" faith. If you decide what you're going to do based on the situation, based on what you can see, based on what you're feeling, you'll almost surely make a bad decision. It was Jesus who got you out of the boat in the first place. It was Jesus who helped you walk on water this far. And it will be Jesus who gets you the rest of the way there. So get your focus back on Him! His word is, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9).
It's dark now, I know. But don't doubt in the darkness what God told you in the light. He knows what you're going through, but He also knows what's ahead. And listen, He's telling you, "Keep going, man! Before long, you'll be in the sunshine!"
In 1965 Howard Rutledge parachuted into North Vietnam and spent the next several years in a prison in Hanoi, locked in a filthy cell, breathing stale, rotten air, trying to keep his sanity. Few of us will ever face the conditions of a POW camp. Yet, to one degree or another, we all spend time behind bars. After half-a-century of marriage, my friend’s wife began to lose her memory. A young mother just called, diagnosed with lupus. Why would God permit such imprisonment? To what purpose?
Jeremiah 30 in verse 24 promises, “The Lord will not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the intents of His mind.” This season in which you find yourself may puzzle you, but it doesn’t bewilder God. He will use it for His purpose. You will get through this.
Romans 8:1-21
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
3-4 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
18-21 That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 2:1–4
This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Insight
Against the backdrop of gross injustice, moral failure, and spiritual unfaithfulness, Isaiah warned a guilty Judah of God’s judgment (Isaiah 1–12) through the Babylonian exile (39:6–7). Isaiah also prophesied of God’s grace (chs. 40–55) and a future restoration for Judah (chs. 11, 56–66). In Isaiah 12, we’re given a glimpse of Judah’s glorious future. Jerusalem will become the world’s most important city and in the midst of the city will be a magnificent temple. World peace will become a reality. Instead of fighting the Jews, the gentile nations will stream to Jerusalem to seek God. God’s people will be “a light for the Gentiles, that [His] salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (49:6). Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah (735–725 BC), prophesied a similar vision in Micah 4:1–3.
The Knife Angel
Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Isaiah 2:4
When knife crime rose across the United Kingdom, the British Ironwork Centre came up with an idea. Working with local police forces, the Centre built and placed two hundred deposit boxes around the country and ran an amnesty campaign. One hundred thousand knives were anonymously surrendered, some still with blood on their blades. These were then shipped to artist Alfie Bradley, who blunted them, inscribed some with the names of young knife-crime victims, plus messages of regret from ex-offenders. All 100,000 weapons were then welded together to create the Knife Angel—a twenty-seven-foot-high angelic sculpture with shimmering steel wings.
When I stood before the Knife Angel, I wondered how many thousands of wounds had been prevented by its existence. I thought too of Isaiah’s vision of the new heavens and earth (Isaiah 65:17), a place where children won’t die young (v. 20) or grow up in crime-breeding poverty (vv. 22–23), a place where knife crime is no more because all swords have been reshaped and given more creative purposes (2:4).
That new world isn’t yet here, but we are to pray and serve until its arrival (Matthew 6:10). In its own way, the Knife Angel gives us a glimpse of God’s promised future. Swords become plow shares. Weapons become artworks. What other redemptive projects can we conjure up to glimpse that future a little more? By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
What inspires you to combat evil? How can you work for peace in your community?
Jesus, we can’t wait until the world is at peace under Your reign. Move us by Your Spirit to help see Your kingdom come in our communities.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Having God’s “Unreasonable” Faith
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew 6:33
When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “…seek first the kingdom of God….” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.
“…do not worry about your life…” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed— no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Don’t make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God.” Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God first, and everything else second.
It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 13-15; John 7:1-27
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 21, 2020
When it Looks Like You Should Turn Back - #8704
When you drive into Texas, these signs say, "Don't mess with Texas." One reason might be the weather in Texas! And, you know, if you just watch the national weather on any given day from spring into the fall and you're likely to see the color red. That's for severe thunderstorms or possible tornadoes. Our son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter were driving across the Texas panhandle one spring day, and sure enough, they drove into one of those really nasty weather fronts. Amarillo, Texas, was behind them. New Mexico was ahead of them. The sky was featuring that special shade of tornadic green. The rain was torrential and the clouds were growing those little fingers, you know, that sometimes turn into tornadoes. Our son decided it was time to call his brother and see what the Internet was saying about this weather. His question: "Shall I keep going or turn back to Amarillo?" The answer: "Just keep going, man. Twenty more miles and you'll be in bright sunshine!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When it Looks Like You Should Turn Back."
It could be that your journey right now is taking you through a very dark and stormy time. There's danger, there's apprehension, there's questions about which way to go, and turning back or bailing out looks like it might be the way to go. But your Father in heaven can see the whole road, and today He's saying to you, "Just keep going. Drive a few more miles and you'll start to see the sunshine!"
The danger is that you'll turn back just before the breakthrough; just before the answer to your prayers. There's a vivid, real-life example of what that looks like in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 14, beginning with verse 24. Jesus has sent His disciples on ahead of Him. They're crossing the unpredictable Sea of Galilee in a boat when suddenly their boat is being "buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it." "Buffeted by the waves." Does that sound like a fair description of how you feel right now?
The Bible goes on to tell us that "during the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified ... But Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.' 'Lord, if it's You,' Peter replied, 'tell me to come to You on the water.' 'Come,' He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' He said, 'why did you doubt?'"
You started down the road you're on by faith, counting on Jesus to get you there. And, like Peter, the wind and the rain and the waves are brutal right now. So you've stopped focusing on Jesus and you started focusing on your fears or what you can do, and you're sinking. People criticize Peter for losing faith, but excuse me, he's the only one who even had enough faith to even get out of the boat. But, sadly, it was what I call "halfway there" faith; enough faith to get you halfway there.
It's not the storm that's going to sink you. It's going to be "halfway there" faith. If you decide what you're going to do based on the situation, based on what you can see, based on what you're feeling, you'll almost surely make a bad decision. It was Jesus who got you out of the boat in the first place. It was Jesus who helped you walk on water this far. And it will be Jesus who gets you the rest of the way there. So get your focus back on Him! His word is, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9).
It's dark now, I know. But don't doubt in the darkness what God told you in the light. He knows what you're going through, but He also knows what's ahead. And listen, He's telling you, "Keep going, man! Before long, you'll be in the sunshine!"
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Isaiah 44, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: YOU WILL NEVER GO WRONG DOING WHAT’S RIGHT
Dad, would you intentionally break the arm of your child? Of course not! Such an action violates every fiber of your moral being. Yet if you engage in sexual activity outside your marriage, you’ll bring more pain into the life of your child than a broken bone.
Mom, would you force your children to sleep outside on a cold night? By no means. Yet if you involve yourself in an affair, you’ll bring more darkness and chill into the lives of your children than a hundred winters.
Actions have consequences. Make this your rule of thumb: do what pleases God. Your classmates show you a way to cheat, the Internet provides pornography to watch. When these things happen, ask yourself the question, “How can I please God?” Psalm 4, verse 5 says, “Do what is right as a sacrifice to the Lord.” You will never go wrong doing what is right!
Isaiah 44
“But for now, dear servant Jacob, listen—
yes, you, Israel, my personal choice.
God who made you has something to say to you;
the God who formed you in the womb wants to help you.
Don’t be afraid, dear servant Jacob,
Jeshurun, the one I chose.
For I will pour water on the thirsty ground
and send streams coursing through the parched earth.
I will pour my Spirit into your descendants
and my blessing on your children.
They shall sprout like grass on the prairie,
like willows alongside creeks.
This one will say, ‘I am God’s,’
and another will go by the name Jacob;
That one will write on his hand ‘God’s property’—
and be proud to be called Israel.”
6-8 God, King of Israel,
your Redeemer, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says:
“I’m first, I’m last, and everything in between.
I’m the only God there is.
Who compares with me?
Speak up. See if you measure up.
From the beginning, who else has always announced what’s coming?
So what is coming next? Anybody want to venture a try?
Don’t be afraid, and don’t worry:
Haven’t I always kept you informed, told you what was going on?
You’re my eyewitnesses:
Have you ever come across a God, a real God, other than me?
There’s no Rock like me that I know of.”
9-11 All those who make no-god idols don’t amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing—they’re total embarrassments! Who would bother making gods that can’t do anything, that can’t “god”? Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality.
12 The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil—such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst.
13-17 The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships—carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: “Ah, this is the life.” And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, “Save me. You’re my god.”
18-19 Pretty stupid, wouldn’t you say? Don’t they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all? Doesn’t it occur to them to say, “Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I’ve used the rest to make an abominable no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!”
20 This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can’t even look at what he’s doing, can’t even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, “This is crazy.”
21-22 “Remember these things, O Jacob.
Take it seriously, Israel, that you’re my servant.
I made you, shaped you: You’re my servant.
O Israel, I’ll never forget you.
I’ve wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings.
There’s nothing left of your sins.
Come back to me, come back.
I’ve redeemed you.”
23 High heavens, sing!
God has done it.
Deep earth, shout!
And you mountains, sing!
A forest choir of oaks and pines and cedars!
God has redeemed Jacob.
God’s glory is on display in Israel.
24 God, your Redeemer,
who shaped your life in your mother’s womb, says:
“I am God. I made all that is.
With no help from you I spread out the skies
and laid out the earth.”
25-28 He makes the magicians look ridiculous
and turns fortunetellers into jokes.
He makes the experts look trivial
and their latest knowledge look silly.
But he backs the word of his servant
and confirms the counsel of his messengers.
He says to Jerusalem, “Be inhabited,”
and to the cities of Judah, “Be rebuilt,”
and to the ruins, “I raise you up.”
He says to Ocean, “Dry up.
I’m drying up your rivers.”
He says to Cyrus, “My shepherd—
everything I want, you’ll do it.”
He says to Jerusalem, “Be built,”
and to the Temple, “Be established.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Hebrews 1:8–12
But about the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.”[a]
10 He also says,
“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
11 They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
12 You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.”[b]
Insight
The letter to the Hebrews contains some of the most revealing Christology (the study of the person and work of Christ) in the New Testament. In Hebrews 1:8–12, God speaks about the role of the Son—understood to be the Messiah. This Son will have a just kingdom that lasts forever (v. 8), and because of the Son’s love for righteousness and hatred of wickedness, God anointed Him with “the oil of joy” (v. 9).
The oil of joy is a way to describe what Jesus faced while on earth. Yet joy is used of Jesus again in chapter 12. There the author says that it was because of the joy before Him (perhaps this anointing of the oil of joy?) that He endured the cross. Neither His ministry nor the cross were the joy; it was what followed that was so extraordinary that Jesus willingly suffered.
The Smiling Jesus
God . . . has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. Hebrews 1:9
If you were to play the part of Jesus in a movie, how would you approach the role? That was the challenge faced by Bruce Marchiano, who played Jesus in the 1993 Visual Bible movie Matthew. Knowing that millions of viewers would draw conclusions about Jesus based on his work, the weight of getting Christ “right” felt overwhelming. He fell to his knees in prayer and begged Jesus for—well, for Jesus.
Bruce gained insight from the first chapter of Hebrews, where the writer tells us how God the Father set the Son apart by anointing Him “with the oil of joy” (1:9). This kind of joy is one of celebration—a gladness of connection to the Father expressed wholeheartedly. Such joy ruled in Jesus’ heart throughout His life. As Hebrews 12:2 describes it, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Taking his cue from this scriptural expression, Bruce offered a uniquely joy-filled portrayal of his Savior. As a result, he became known as “the smiling Jesus.” We too can dare to fall to our knees and “beg Jesus for Jesus.” May He so fill us with His character that people around us see the expression of His love in us! By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
What are your perceptions of Jesus and how might they need to change? How can you represent Him as you show His heart to the world?
Dear Jesus, we beg You for You. May Your heart be what others see in us today. May we radiate Your joy in all we say and do.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Taking Possession of Our Own Soul
By your patience possess your souls. —Luke 21:19
When a person is born again, there is a period of time when he does not have the same vitality in his thinking or reasoning that he previously had. We must learn to express this new life within us, which comes by forming the mind of Christ (see Philippians 2:5). Luke 21:19 means that we take possession of our souls through patience. But many of us prefer to stay at the entrance to the Christian life, instead of going on to create and build our soul in accordance with the new life God has placed within us. We fail because we are ignorant of the way God has made us, and we blame things on the devil that are actually the result of our own undisciplined natures. Just think what we could be when we are awakened to the truth!
There are certain things in life that we need not pray about— moods, for instance. We will never get rid of moodiness by praying, but we will by kicking it out of our lives. Moods nearly always are rooted in some physical circumstance, not in our true inner self. It is a continual struggle not to listen to the moods which arise as a result of our physical condition, but we must never submit to them for a second. We have to pick ourselves up by the back of the neck and shake ourselves; then we will find that we can do what we believed we were unable to do. The problem that most of us are cursed with is simply that we won’t. The Christian life is one of spiritual courage and determination lived out in our flesh.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 10-12; John 6:45-71
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Covering First Base - #8703
If you're a baseball fan, it seems like winter is going to last forever. Then you hear those wonderful words: "Opening Day!" Snowballs turn to fast balls, and you're happy again. You know, over the last years, one of the great stars in baseball has been Albert Pujols, who for many years made records on St. Louis Cardinals. And he has had some great seasons, acknowledged by many to be one of baseball's all-time greats.
Now, in his book called "More Than the Game," and it actually shows there's a lot more to this guy than uncommon athletic ability. He says that baseball is, for him, ultimately a God-given platform to elevate Jesus Christ. But wait, isn't that true of whatever position any Jesus-follower is in?
Now, Albert Pujols loved to see opposing players be out at first base, but apparently he can't stand the thought of them being out at the gates of heaven.
He revealed in his book that he has, on occasion, asked players an eternity question while they're standing on his base. He says, "Do you think you're going to heaven when you die? If you died today, where do you think you'd go?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Covering First Base."
That's fascinating! Now, you may or may not like Albert's approach, but I'll tell you what, there's no doubt he's a Jesus-follower who understands why he is where he is. Our word for today from the Word of God tells us that he is, like every believer, like you and me, "an ambassador for Christ." And in the Bible's words, "imploring people in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20); divinely positioned to help people be in heaven someday. That's why you are where you are!
Whatever your situation is, it's designed to situate you to be His face there, His voice there, His hands there, so those people there can have a chance at Jesus. So whether that's a hospital, or a funeral home, or an office, or a factory, a soccer field, a classroom, a community organization, or your neighborhood, wherever you are you are there to help people be in heaven.
Now, I wouldn't have chosen to see a child we love dearly spend trying days in the hospital, and the battle was pretty intense with some medical issues that were challenging. But I can tell you one reason I was there. It was the same reason God's all-star rep, Paul, was in prison. He said he was an "ambassador in chains" for the sake of Jesus' good news (Ephesians 6:20).
Well, I know why I was in that hospital. I'm thinking, "You know what? Wait a minute, I'm an ambassador in a hospital. I wouldn't be here except for a situation I really wish wasn't happening, but there were so many opportunities to represent the love and the peace of Jesus to hospital staff.
Now, Paul, ambassador in chains, he said, "I'm placed where I am, in this lousy situation, because Jesus needed someone to tell Caesar's Praetorian Guards about Him. And we know later that he said, "The Christians in Caesar's household salute you." He was an ambassador in chains so these guards that were chained to him and him to them for four hour shifts. He wanted the gospel, God did, to infiltrate the very world of Caesar himself.
Well, like Paul, we knew our situation had positioned us in a hospital to be Christ's "ambassadors" there. And I'm happy to say our loved one was eventually out and recovering. But you know what? That crisis meant that some doctors, nurses and other patients got to hear about Jesus. So, just like Albert Pujols in his "ambassador at first base" situation, we all get to be His ambassador at Wal-Mart, our kids' school, on Facebook, in our service club, at the gym, the club, the workplace.
And suddenly our "everyday stuff" isn't everyday anymore. It takes on eternal meaning. Because the people we know can't get to first base with God without our Jesus.
Dad, would you intentionally break the arm of your child? Of course not! Such an action violates every fiber of your moral being. Yet if you engage in sexual activity outside your marriage, you’ll bring more pain into the life of your child than a broken bone.
Mom, would you force your children to sleep outside on a cold night? By no means. Yet if you involve yourself in an affair, you’ll bring more darkness and chill into the lives of your children than a hundred winters.
Actions have consequences. Make this your rule of thumb: do what pleases God. Your classmates show you a way to cheat, the Internet provides pornography to watch. When these things happen, ask yourself the question, “How can I please God?” Psalm 4, verse 5 says, “Do what is right as a sacrifice to the Lord.” You will never go wrong doing what is right!
Isaiah 44
“But for now, dear servant Jacob, listen—
yes, you, Israel, my personal choice.
God who made you has something to say to you;
the God who formed you in the womb wants to help you.
Don’t be afraid, dear servant Jacob,
Jeshurun, the one I chose.
For I will pour water on the thirsty ground
and send streams coursing through the parched earth.
I will pour my Spirit into your descendants
and my blessing on your children.
They shall sprout like grass on the prairie,
like willows alongside creeks.
This one will say, ‘I am God’s,’
and another will go by the name Jacob;
That one will write on his hand ‘God’s property’—
and be proud to be called Israel.”
6-8 God, King of Israel,
your Redeemer, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says:
“I’m first, I’m last, and everything in between.
I’m the only God there is.
Who compares with me?
Speak up. See if you measure up.
From the beginning, who else has always announced what’s coming?
So what is coming next? Anybody want to venture a try?
Don’t be afraid, and don’t worry:
Haven’t I always kept you informed, told you what was going on?
You’re my eyewitnesses:
Have you ever come across a God, a real God, other than me?
There’s no Rock like me that I know of.”
9-11 All those who make no-god idols don’t amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing—they’re total embarrassments! Who would bother making gods that can’t do anything, that can’t “god”? Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality.
12 The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil—such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst.
13-17 The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships—carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: “Ah, this is the life.” And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, “Save me. You’re my god.”
18-19 Pretty stupid, wouldn’t you say? Don’t they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all? Doesn’t it occur to them to say, “Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I’ve used the rest to make an abominable no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!”
20 This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can’t even look at what he’s doing, can’t even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, “This is crazy.”
21-22 “Remember these things, O Jacob.
Take it seriously, Israel, that you’re my servant.
I made you, shaped you: You’re my servant.
O Israel, I’ll never forget you.
I’ve wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings.
There’s nothing left of your sins.
Come back to me, come back.
I’ve redeemed you.”
23 High heavens, sing!
God has done it.
Deep earth, shout!
And you mountains, sing!
A forest choir of oaks and pines and cedars!
God has redeemed Jacob.
God’s glory is on display in Israel.
24 God, your Redeemer,
who shaped your life in your mother’s womb, says:
“I am God. I made all that is.
With no help from you I spread out the skies
and laid out the earth.”
25-28 He makes the magicians look ridiculous
and turns fortunetellers into jokes.
He makes the experts look trivial
and their latest knowledge look silly.
But he backs the word of his servant
and confirms the counsel of his messengers.
He says to Jerusalem, “Be inhabited,”
and to the cities of Judah, “Be rebuilt,”
and to the ruins, “I raise you up.”
He says to Ocean, “Dry up.
I’m drying up your rivers.”
He says to Cyrus, “My shepherd—
everything I want, you’ll do it.”
He says to Jerusalem, “Be built,”
and to the Temple, “Be established.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Hebrews 1:8–12
But about the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.”[a]
10 He also says,
“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
11 They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
12 You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.”[b]
Insight
The letter to the Hebrews contains some of the most revealing Christology (the study of the person and work of Christ) in the New Testament. In Hebrews 1:8–12, God speaks about the role of the Son—understood to be the Messiah. This Son will have a just kingdom that lasts forever (v. 8), and because of the Son’s love for righteousness and hatred of wickedness, God anointed Him with “the oil of joy” (v. 9).
The oil of joy is a way to describe what Jesus faced while on earth. Yet joy is used of Jesus again in chapter 12. There the author says that it was because of the joy before Him (perhaps this anointing of the oil of joy?) that He endured the cross. Neither His ministry nor the cross were the joy; it was what followed that was so extraordinary that Jesus willingly suffered.
The Smiling Jesus
God . . . has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. Hebrews 1:9
If you were to play the part of Jesus in a movie, how would you approach the role? That was the challenge faced by Bruce Marchiano, who played Jesus in the 1993 Visual Bible movie Matthew. Knowing that millions of viewers would draw conclusions about Jesus based on his work, the weight of getting Christ “right” felt overwhelming. He fell to his knees in prayer and begged Jesus for—well, for Jesus.
Bruce gained insight from the first chapter of Hebrews, where the writer tells us how God the Father set the Son apart by anointing Him “with the oil of joy” (1:9). This kind of joy is one of celebration—a gladness of connection to the Father expressed wholeheartedly. Such joy ruled in Jesus’ heart throughout His life. As Hebrews 12:2 describes it, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Taking his cue from this scriptural expression, Bruce offered a uniquely joy-filled portrayal of his Savior. As a result, he became known as “the smiling Jesus.” We too can dare to fall to our knees and “beg Jesus for Jesus.” May He so fill us with His character that people around us see the expression of His love in us! By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
What are your perceptions of Jesus and how might they need to change? How can you represent Him as you show His heart to the world?
Dear Jesus, we beg You for You. May Your heart be what others see in us today. May we radiate Your joy in all we say and do.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Taking Possession of Our Own Soul
By your patience possess your souls. —Luke 21:19
When a person is born again, there is a period of time when he does not have the same vitality in his thinking or reasoning that he previously had. We must learn to express this new life within us, which comes by forming the mind of Christ (see Philippians 2:5). Luke 21:19 means that we take possession of our souls through patience. But many of us prefer to stay at the entrance to the Christian life, instead of going on to create and build our soul in accordance with the new life God has placed within us. We fail because we are ignorant of the way God has made us, and we blame things on the devil that are actually the result of our own undisciplined natures. Just think what we could be when we are awakened to the truth!
There are certain things in life that we need not pray about— moods, for instance. We will never get rid of moodiness by praying, but we will by kicking it out of our lives. Moods nearly always are rooted in some physical circumstance, not in our true inner self. It is a continual struggle not to listen to the moods which arise as a result of our physical condition, but we must never submit to them for a second. We have to pick ourselves up by the back of the neck and shake ourselves; then we will find that we can do what we believed we were unable to do. The problem that most of us are cursed with is simply that we won’t. The Christian life is one of spiritual courage and determination lived out in our flesh.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 10-12; John 6:45-71
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Covering First Base - #8703
If you're a baseball fan, it seems like winter is going to last forever. Then you hear those wonderful words: "Opening Day!" Snowballs turn to fast balls, and you're happy again. You know, over the last years, one of the great stars in baseball has been Albert Pujols, who for many years made records on St. Louis Cardinals. And he has had some great seasons, acknowledged by many to be one of baseball's all-time greats.
Now, in his book called "More Than the Game," and it actually shows there's a lot more to this guy than uncommon athletic ability. He says that baseball is, for him, ultimately a God-given platform to elevate Jesus Christ. But wait, isn't that true of whatever position any Jesus-follower is in?
Now, Albert Pujols loved to see opposing players be out at first base, but apparently he can't stand the thought of them being out at the gates of heaven.
He revealed in his book that he has, on occasion, asked players an eternity question while they're standing on his base. He says, "Do you think you're going to heaven when you die? If you died today, where do you think you'd go?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Covering First Base."
That's fascinating! Now, you may or may not like Albert's approach, but I'll tell you what, there's no doubt he's a Jesus-follower who understands why he is where he is. Our word for today from the Word of God tells us that he is, like every believer, like you and me, "an ambassador for Christ." And in the Bible's words, "imploring people in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20); divinely positioned to help people be in heaven someday. That's why you are where you are!
Whatever your situation is, it's designed to situate you to be His face there, His voice there, His hands there, so those people there can have a chance at Jesus. So whether that's a hospital, or a funeral home, or an office, or a factory, a soccer field, a classroom, a community organization, or your neighborhood, wherever you are you are there to help people be in heaven.
Now, I wouldn't have chosen to see a child we love dearly spend trying days in the hospital, and the battle was pretty intense with some medical issues that were challenging. But I can tell you one reason I was there. It was the same reason God's all-star rep, Paul, was in prison. He said he was an "ambassador in chains" for the sake of Jesus' good news (Ephesians 6:20).
Well, I know why I was in that hospital. I'm thinking, "You know what? Wait a minute, I'm an ambassador in a hospital. I wouldn't be here except for a situation I really wish wasn't happening, but there were so many opportunities to represent the love and the peace of Jesus to hospital staff.
Now, Paul, ambassador in chains, he said, "I'm placed where I am, in this lousy situation, because Jesus needed someone to tell Caesar's Praetorian Guards about Him. And we know later that he said, "The Christians in Caesar's household salute you." He was an ambassador in chains so these guards that were chained to him and him to them for four hour shifts. He wanted the gospel, God did, to infiltrate the very world of Caesar himself.
Well, like Paul, we knew our situation had positioned us in a hospital to be Christ's "ambassadors" there. And I'm happy to say our loved one was eventually out and recovering. But you know what? That crisis meant that some doctors, nurses and other patients got to hear about Jesus. So, just like Albert Pujols in his "ambassador at first base" situation, we all get to be His ambassador at Wal-Mart, our kids' school, on Facebook, in our service club, at the gym, the club, the workplace.
And suddenly our "everyday stuff" isn't everyday anymore. It takes on eternal meaning. Because the people we know can't get to first base with God without our Jesus.
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