Nahum 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: STAY AFTER GOD’S HEART

1 Samuel 16:7 says, “. . .man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Those words were written for misfits and outcasts.  God uses them all.  Moses ran from justice, but God used him.  Jonah ran from God, but God used him.  Rahab ran a brothel, Sarah ran out of hope, Lot ran with the wrong crowd, but God used them all.

And David?  Human eyes saw a gangly teenager, smelling like sheep.  Yet the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is the one” (1 Samuel 16:12).  God saw what no one else saw: a God-seeking heart.  David took after God’s heart because he stayed after God’s heart.  And in the end that’s all God wants or needs.  Others measure your waist size or wallet.  Not God.  He examines hearts. And when he finds one set on Him, He calls it and claims it.

Nahum 1

God Is Serious Business

A report on the problem of Nineveh, the way God gave Nahum of Elkosh to see it:

2-6 God is serious business.
    He won’t be trifled with.
He avenges his foes.
    He stands up against his enemies, fierce and raging.
But God doesn’t lose his temper.
    He’s powerful, but it’s a patient power.
Still, no one gets by with anything.
    Sooner or later, everyone pays.
Tornadoes and hurricanes
    are the wake of his passage,
Storm clouds are the dust
    he shakes off his feet.
He yells at the sea: It dries up.
    All the rivers run dry.
The Bashan and Carmel mountains shrivel,
    the Lebanon orchards shrivel.
Mountains quake in their roots,
    hills dissolve into mud flats.
Earth shakes in fear of God.
    The whole world’s in a panic.
Who can face such towering anger?
    Who can stand up to this fierce rage?
His anger spills out like a river of lava,
    his fury shatters boulders.

7-10 God is good,
    a hiding place in tough times.
He recognizes and welcomes
    anyone looking for help,
No matter how desperate the trouble.
    But cozy islands of escape
He wipes right off the map.
    No one gets away from God.
Why waste time conniving against God?
    He’s putting an end to all such scheming.
For troublemakers, no second chances.
    Like a pile of dry brush,
Soaked in oil,
    they’ll go up in flames.

A Think Tank for Lies
11 Nineveh’s an anthill
    of evil plots against God,
A think tank for lies
    that seduce and betray.

12-13 And God has something to say about all this:
    “Even though you’re on top of the world,
With all the applause and all the votes,
    you’ll be mowed down flat.

“I’ve afflicted you, Judah, true,
    but I won’t afflict you again.
From now on I’m taking the yoke from your neck
    and splitting it up for kindling.
I’m cutting you free
    from the ropes of your bondage.”

14 God’s orders on Nineveh:

“You’re the end of the line.
    It’s all over with Nineveh.
I’m gutting your temple.
    Your gods and goddesses go in the trash.
I’m digging your grave. It’s an unmarked grave.
    You’re nothing—no, you’re less than nothing!”

15 Look! Striding across the mountains—
    a messenger bringing the latest good news: peace!
A holiday, Judah! Celebrate!
    Worship and recommit to God!
No more worries about this enemy.
    This one is history. Close the books.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Monday, July 20, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Psalm 27:1–3, 7–14

Of David.

The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When the wicked advance against me
    to devour[a] me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

Read full chapter
Footnotes
Psalm 27:2 Or slander

Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me,
    do not turn your servant away in anger;
    you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
    God my Savior.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
    the Lord will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, Lord;
    lead me in a straight path
    because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
    for false witnesses rise up against me,
    spouting malicious accusations.

13 I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.

Insight
Twice in Psalm 27:14 the ancient writer (believed to be David) urges believers in all generations to “wait for the Lord.” The Hebrew word for “wait” is qavah, which variously means “to wait, look for, hope, expect.” This is the word used in Isaiah 40:31, a well-known Old Testament verse about waiting on God: “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (nkjv). One Bible scholar describes “wait” as living “in confident, eager suspense. . . . To live with the tensions of promises revealed but not fulfilled. . . . [To wait] with eager longing” (Ortlund, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners).

How to Wait
Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. Psalm 27:7

Frustrated and disappointed with church, seventeen-year-old Trevor began a years-long quest for answers. But nothing he explored seemed to satisfy his longings or answer his questions.

His journey did draw him closer to his parents. Still, he had problems with Christianity. During one discussion, he exclaimed bitterly, “The Bible is full of empty promises.”

Another man faced disappointment and hardship that fueled his doubts. But as David fled from enemies who sought to kill him, his response was not to run from God but to praise Him. “Though war break out against me, even then I will be confident,” he sang (Psalm 27:3).

Yet David’s poem still hints at doubt. His cry, “Be merciful to me and answer me” (v. 7), sounds like a man with fears and questions. “Do not hide your face from me,” David pleaded. “Do not reject me or forsake me” (v. 9).

David didn’t let his doubts paralyze him, however. Even in those doubts, he declared, “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (v. 13). Then he addressed his readers: you, me, and the Trevors of this world. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (v. 14).

We won’t find fast, simple answers to our huge questions. But we will find—when we wait for Him—a God who can be trusted. By:  Tim Gustafson

Reflect & Pray
What do you do with your big questions? Where have you seen answers “in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13), and where are you still waiting for answers?

Father, melt my heart along with my fears and my anger.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, July 20, 2020
Dependent on God’s Presence
Those who wait on the Lord…shall walk and not faint. —Isaiah 40:31

There is no thrill for us in walking, yet it is the test for all of our steady and enduring qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest stretch possible as a measure of strength. The word walk is used in the Bible to express the character of a person— “…John…looking at Jesus as He walked…said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’ ” (John 1:35-36). There is nothing abstract or obscure in the Bible; everything is vivid and real. God does not say, “Be spiritual,” but He says, “Walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).

When we are in an unhealthy condition either physically or emotionally, we always look for thrills in life. In our physical life this leads to our efforts to counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit; in our emotional life it leads to obsessions and to the destruction of our morality; and in our spiritual life, if we insist on pursuing only thrills, on mounting up “with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), it will result in the destruction of our spirituality.

Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. The experience the psalmist speaks of— “We will not fear, even though…” (Psalm 46:2)— will be ours once we are grounded on the truth of the reality of God’s presence, not just a simple awareness of it, but an understanding of the reality of it. Then we will exclaim, “He has been here all the time!” At critical moments in our lives it is necessary to ask God for guidance, but it should be unnecessary to be constantly saying, “Oh, Lord, direct me in this, and in that.” Of course He will, and in fact, He is doing it already! If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, He will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us. Disciples Indeed, 388 R

Bible in a Year: Psalms 26-28; Acts 22

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, July 20, 2020
Welcoming The King - #8746

In a few places in the world, there is a man who literally embodies a nation. For the Middle Eastern kingdom of Jordan, for many years King Hussein was that kind of man. His stature on the international scene could be measured by a lot of influence he had on the Middle East peace talks and even by the unprecedented coming together of friends and enemies at his funeral. But those who loved him most, of course, were his own countrymen. He was gone from Jordan for many of what turned out to be the last months of his life - gone for treatment of a deadly cancer. Just weeks before his final trip for treatment before the cancer claimed his life, King Hussein returned to his beloved country - flying his own airplane. It was a dramatic return for a king who had been gone so long, and the welcome he received was pretty amazing. As a display of affection and loyalty, people slaughtered sheep and goats right on the street as his motorcade passed by. One man even sacrificed a camel that was valued then at $10,000. They literally poured out their love for their returning king.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Welcoming The King."

One day, another king will return to the Middle East - one who has been away for a long time, but He will have, in fact, no successor needed. He will reign forever. He is the King of all kings. He is my Jesus, and I hope yours. Those of us who are His loyal subjects, we should look to His return as the crowning moment of all we have lived for and to be able to pour out our love there for our returning King.

Will Jesus' return be soon? I don't know and I'm not about to repeat the mistake of so many who have tried to name the time of His coming back, but He did leave us signs that would precede His return. And with Israel established as a nation for the first time in 2,000 years, with the technology in place to finally fulfill many of the Bible's centuries-old prophecies, with many other signs converging, I think there is one thing we can say about what time it is. The world has never looked more like the world Jesus said He would return to than the world looks today.

And the prospect of your King's glorious return should be affecting the way you live. Here's our word for today from the Word of God from 1 John 3:2-3. "We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

You and I should be living in light of our King's return. He's not looking for animal sacrifices as your love gift. He's looking for you to live to be more and more like Him every day. Since being like Jesus is your eternal destiny, He wants you to start being now what He's going to make you forever. Living in light of the King's coming also means sacrificing our personal resources and putting them to work in the things that will matter when He comes, rather than storing them up for earth-stuff that won't matter when He comes.

And even before His final return, there is a sense in which your King awaits your loving welcome each new day. He shows up every day to spend time with you. So, are you showing up or are you standing Him up? My son was 12 and he and I heard a conference message on how dark the world is becoming. And when my son expressed his concern about that after the meeting, I reminded him that Jesus was coming back and everything would be fine after that. When I asked him why he didn't want Jesus to come back immediately, which is what he told me, he said, "Dad, I want to have more devotions first. I want to know Him better before I see Him." Don't you?

Welcome Him each new morning. Sacrifice what you have for what will matter when He comes. Give Him the daily love-gift of you - to be a little more like Him that day. He's coming back in power; He's coming back in great glory. Pour out your love now for your returning King.

Acts 22, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: 'Birthdays'

What is it about birthdays that causes us to quiver so? Certainly part of the problem is the mirror.  Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician. But the real pain is deeper.  Sometimes a dream-come-true-world has come true and it’s less than you’d hoped.  Regret becomes a major pastime.

Luke 17:33 says, “Whoever tries to keep his life safe will lose it, and the one who’s prepared to lose his life will preserve it.” “There are two ways to view life,” Jesus is saying, “those who protect it or those who pursue it.  The wisest are not the ones with the most years in their lives, but the most life in their years.”

You can take the safe route. Or you can hear the voice of adventure—God’s adventure. Adopt the child. Teach the class.  Change careers. Make a difference. Sure it isn’t safe, but what is?

from He Still Moves Stones

Acts 22

“My dear brothers and fathers, listen carefully to what I have to say before you jump to conclusions about me.” When they heard him speaking Hebrew, they grew even quieter. No one wanted to miss a word of this.

2-3 He continued, “I am a good Jew, born in Tarsus in the province of Cilicia, but educated here in Jerusalem under the exacting eye of Rabbi Gamaliel, thoroughly instructed in our religious traditions. And I’ve always been passionately on God’s side, just as you are right now.

4-5 “I went after anyone connected with this ‘Way,’ went at them hammer and tongs, ready to kill for God. I rounded up men and women right and left and had them thrown in prison. You can ask the Chief Priest or anyone in the High Council to verify this; they all knew me well. Then I went off to our brothers in Damascus, armed with official documents authorizing me to hunt down the followers of Jesus there, arrest them, and bring them back to Jerusalem for sentencing.

6-7 “As I arrived on the outskirts of Damascus about noon, a blinding light blazed out of the skies and I fell to the ground, dazed. I heard a voice: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?’

8-9 “‘Who are you, Master?’ I asked.

“He said, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, the One you’re hunting down.’ My companions saw the light, but they didn’t hear the conversation.

10-11 “Then I said, ‘What do I do now, Master?’

“He said, ‘Get to your feet and enter Damascus. There you’ll be told everything that’s been set out for you to do.’ And so we entered Damascus, but nothing like the entrance I had planned—I was blind as a bat and my companions had to lead me in by the hand.

12-13 “And that’s when I met Ananias, a man with a sterling reputation in observing our laws—the Jewish community in Damascus is unanimous on that score. He came and put his arm on my shoulder. ‘Look up,’ he said. I looked, and found myself looking right into his eyes—I could see again!

14-16 “Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has handpicked you to be briefed on his plan of action. You’ve actually seen the Righteous Innocent and heard him speak. You are to be a key witness to everyone you meet of what you’ve seen and heard. So what are you waiting for? Get up and get yourself baptized, scrubbed clean of those sins and personally acquainted with God.’

17-18 “Well, it happened just as Ananias said. After I was back in Jerusalem and praying one day in the Temple, lost in the presence of God, I saw him, saw God’s Righteous Innocent, and heard him say to me, ‘Hurry up! Get out of here as quickly as you can. None of the Jews here in Jerusalem are going to accept what you say about me.’

19-20 “At first I objected: ‘Who has better credentials? They all know how obsessed I was with hunting out those who believed in you, beating them up in the meeting places and throwing them in jail. And when your witness Stephen was murdered, I was right there, holding the coats of the murderers and cheering them on. And now they see me totally converted. What better qualification could I have?’

21 “But he said, ‘Don’t argue. Go. I’m sending you on a long journey to outsider non-Jews.’”

A Roman Citizen
22-25 The people in the crowd had listened attentively up to this point, but now they broke loose, shouting out, “Kill him! He’s an insect! Stomp on him!” They shook their fists. They filled the air with curses. That’s when the captain intervened and ordered Paul taken into the barracks. By now the captain was thoroughly exasperated. He decided to interrogate Paul under torture in order to get to the bottom of this, to find out what he had done that provoked this outraged violence. As they spread-eagled him with thongs, getting him ready for the whip, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is this legal: torturing a Roman citizen without a fair trial?”

26 When the centurion heard that, he went directly to the captain. “Do you realize what you’ve done? This man is a Roman citizen!”

27 The captain came back and took charge. “Is what I hear right? You’re a Roman citizen?”

Paul said, “I certainly am.”

28 The captain was impressed. “I paid a huge sum for my citizenship. How much did it cost you?”

“Nothing,” said Paul. “It cost me nothing. I was free from the day of my birth.”

29 That put a stop to the interrogation. And it put the fear of God into the captain. He had put a Roman citizen in chains and come within a whisker of putting him under torture!

30 The next day, determined to get to the root of the trouble and know for sure what was behind the Jewish accusation, the captain released Paul and ordered a meeting of the high priests and the High Council to see what they could make of it. Paul was led in and took his place before them.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Deuteronomy 6:1–9

Love the Lord Your God

 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Read full chapter
Footnotes
Deuteronomy 6:4 Or The Lord our God is one Lord; or The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; or The Lord is our God, the Lord alone

Insight
Deuteronomy 6:4–9, known as the Shema, from Hebrew šama? for “hear” (v. 4), is the basic Jewish confession of faith recited by every devout Jew twice daily to remind them of the first and second commandments (Exodus 20:2–6). After giving the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:1–21), Moses gave God’s people the one-heart principle that undergirds the entire Law: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (6:5). God demands exclusive, wholehearted, and undivided allegiance and devotion. Jesus affirms that loving God with our whole being is “the most important [commandment]” (Mark 12:29–30), calling it “the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:36–38). Orthodox Jews carried out the commands of Deuteronomy 6:8–9 literally, placing portions of the Torah (such as the Shema or the Decalogue) in small boxes (mezuzahs) attached to the doorframes of houses, or in phylacteries tied to their arms or foreheads (Exodus 13:9, 16; Deuteronomy 11:18–20).

On Our Hearts
These commandments . . . are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Deuteronomy 6:6–7

After a young boy faced some challenges in school, his dad began to teach him a pledge to recite each morning before school: “I thank God for waking me up today. I am going to school so I can learn . . . and be the leader that God has created me to be.” The pledge is one way the father hopes to help his son apply himself and deal with life’s inevitable challenges.

In a way, by helping his son to commit this pledge to memory, the father is doing something similar to what God commanded the Israelites in the desert: “These commandments . . . are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children” (Deuteronomy 6:6–7).

After wandering in the wilderness for forty years, the next generation of Israelites was about to enter the Promised Land. God knew it wouldn’t be easy for them to succeed—unless they kept their focus on Him. And so, through Moses, He urged them to remember and be obedient to Him—and to help their children to know and love God by talking about His Word “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (v. 7).

Each new day, we too can commit to allowing Scripture to guide our hearts and minds as we live in gratitude to Him. By:  Alyson Kieda

Reflect & Pray
What can you do to keep Scripture on your heart? Why is it important to read and talk about the Word with loved ones?

Dear God, thank You for giving me each new day. Help me to keep Your wisdom in my heart and on my mind.

To learn more about how to study the Bible, visit christianuniversity.org/sf106.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, July 19, 2020
The Submission of the Believer
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. —John 13:13

Our Lord never insists on having authority over us. He never says, “You will submit to me.” No, He leaves us perfectly free to choose— so free, in fact, that we can spit in His face or we can put Him to death, as others have done; and yet He will never say a word. But once His life has been created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective domination, in which I acknowledge that “You are worthy, O Lord…” (Revelation 4:11). It is simply the unworthiness within me that refuses to bow down or to submit to one who is worthy. When I meet someone who is more holy than myself, and I don’t recognize his worthiness, nor obey his instructions for me, it is a sign of my own unworthiness being revealed. God teaches us by using these people who are a little better than we are; not better intellectually, but more holy. And He continues to do so until we willingly submit. Then the whole attitude of our life is one of obedience to Him.

If our Lord insisted on our obedience, He would simply become a taskmaster and cease to have any real authority. He never insists on obedience, but when we truly see Him we will instantly obey Him. Then He is easily Lord of our life, and we live in adoration of Him from morning till night. The level of my growth in grace is revealed by the way I look at obedience. We should have a much higher view of the word obedience, rescuing it from the mire of the world. Obedience is only possible between people who are equals in their relationship to each other; like the relationship between father and son, not that between master and servant. Jesus showed this relationship by saying, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). “…though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The Son was obedient as our Redeemer, because He was the Son, not in order to become God’s Son.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own.  Biblical Ethics, 99 R

Bible in a Year: Psalms 23-25; Acts 21:18-40

Micah 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Sowing Seeds

Many parents aren’t proud of their family trees. The harvest was taken, but no seed was sown. Childhood memories bring more hurt than inspiration. If such is the case, put down the family scrapbook and pick up your Bible. John 3:6 reminds us, “Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit.” Your parents have given you genes, but God gives you grace.

Didn’t have a good father?  Galatians 4:7 says God will be your father. Didn’t have a good role model?  Ephesians 5:1 says, “You are God’s child whom He loves, so try to be like Him.”

You cannot control the way your forefathers responded to God. But you can control the way you respond to Him. The past does not have to be your prison. Choose well and someday—generations from now—your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will thank God for the seeds you sowed!

From When God Whispers Your Name

Micah 7

Stick Around to See What God Will Do

 I’m overwhelmed with sorrow!
    sunk in a swamp of despair!
I’m like someone who goes to the garden
    to pick cabbages and carrots and corn
And returns empty-handed,
    finds nothing for soup or sandwich or salad.
There’s not a decent person in sight.
    Right-living humans are extinct.
They’re all out for one another’s blood,
    animals preying on each other.
They’ve all become experts in evil.
    Corrupt leaders demand bribes.
The powerful rich
    make sure they get what they want.
The best and brightest are thistles.
    The top of the line is crabgrass.
But no longer: It’s exam time.
    Look at them slinking away in disgrace!
Don’t trust your neighbor,
    don’t confide in your friend.
Watch your words,
    even with your spouse.
Neighborhoods and families are falling to pieces.
    The closer they are—sons, daughters, in-laws—
The worse they can be.
    Your own family is the enemy.

7 But me, I’m not giving up.
    I’m sticking around to see what God will do.
I’m waiting for God to make things right.
    I’m counting on God to listen to me.

Spreading Your Wings
8-10 Don’t, enemy, crow over me.
    I’m down, but I’m not out.
I’m sitting in the dark right now,
    but God is my light.
I can take God’s punishing rage.
    I deserve it—I sinned.
But it’s not forever. He’s on my side
    and is going to get me out of this.
He’ll turn on the lights and show me his ways.
    I’ll see the whole picture and how right he is.
And my enemy will see it, too,
    and be discredited—yes, disgraced!
This enemy who kept taunting,
    “So where is this God of yours?”
I’m going to see it with these, my own eyes—
    my enemy disgraced, trash in the gutter.

11-13 Oh, that will be a day! A day for rebuilding your city,
    a day for stretching your arms, spreading your wings!
All your dispersed and scattered people will come back,
    old friends and family from faraway places,
From Assyria in the east to Egypt in the west,
    from across the seas and out of the mountains.
But there’ll be a reversal for everyone else—massive depopulation—
    because of the way they lived, the things they did.

14-17 Shepherd, O God, your people with your staff,
    your dear and precious flock.
Uniquely yours in a grove of trees,
    centered in lotus land.
Let them graze in lush Bashan
    as in the old days in green Gilead.
Reproduce the miracle-wonders
    of our exodus from Egypt.
And the godless nations: Put them in their place—
    humiliated in their arrogance, speechless and clueless.
Make them slink like snakes, crawl like cockroaches,
    come out of their holes from under their rocks
And face our God.
    Fill them with holy fear and trembling.

18-20 Where is the god who can compare with you—
    wiping the slate clean of guilt,
Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear,
    to the past sins of your purged and precious people?
You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long,
    for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most.
And compassion is on its way to us.
    You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing.
You’ll sink our sins
    to the bottom of the ocean.
You’ll stay true to your word to Father Jacob
    and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham—
Everything you promised our ancestors
    from a long time ago.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Lamentations 3:13–24

He pierced my heart
    with arrows from his quiver.
14 I became the laughingstock of all my people;
    they mock me in song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitter herbs
    and given me gall to drink.

16 He has broken my teeth with gravel;
    he has trampled me in the dust.
17 I have been deprived of peace;
    I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
    and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
    the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
    and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

Insight
Lamentations 3 is a bit puzzling. The writer, the prophet Jeremiah, spends a considerable amount of time describing his afflictions: abandonment, broken bones, bitterness, hardship, ridicule. In verse 1 he makes it clear that he feels God is the source of his pain, that it’s God who’s caused him to suffer. Yet despite all these afflictions he has hope because of one thing—God’s great love. “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail” (3:22). This is an incredible affirmation! The man who feels he’s been crushed by God says that he’s not consumed because of His compassion! God’s love can’t be understood by our circumstances alone. His compassion saves us and preserves us, not from all harm but from being completely consumed.

When the Splendor Is Gone
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. Lamentations 3:22

I can never recapture the splendor that was our daughter Melissa. Fading from my memory are those wonderful times when we watched her joyfully playing high school volleyball. And it’s sometimes hard to remember the shy smile of contentment that crossed her face when we were doing family activities. Her death at age seventeen dropped a curtain on the joy of her presence.

In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah’s words show he understood that the heart can be punctured. “My splendor is gone,” he said, “and all that I had hoped from the Lord” (3:18). His situation was far different from yours and mine. He had preached God’s judgment, and he saw Jerusalem defeated. The splendor was gone because he felt defeated (v. 12), isolated (v. 14), and abandoned by God (vv. 15–20).

But that’s not the end of his story. Light shined through. Jeremiah, burdened and broken, stammered out “I have hope” (v. 21)—hope that comes from realizing that “because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed” (v. 22). And here is just what we need to remember when the splendor is gone: God’s “compassions never fail. They are new every morning” (vv. 22–23).

Even in our darkest days, God’s great faithfulness shines through. By:  Dave Branon

Reflect & Pray
How has God encouraged you when you felt hopeless? How might He want you to use that to encourage others?

Thank You, Father, that You’re the God of compassion. Even while I walk through the valley of darkness, morning will follow as I remember Your compassion and Your faithfulness.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, July 18, 2020
The Mystery of Believing
He said, "Who are You, Lord?" —Acts 9:5

Through the miracle of redemption, Saul of Tarsus was instantly changed from a strong-willed and forceful Pharisee into a humble and devoted bondservant of the Lord Jesus.

There is nothing miraculous or mysterious about the things we can explain. We control what we are able to explain, consequently it is only natural to seek an explanation for everything. It is not natural to obey, yet it is not necessarily sinful to disobey. There can be no real disobedience, nor any moral virtue in obedience, unless a person recognizes the higher authority of the one giving the orders. If this recognition does not exist, even the one giving the orders may view the other person’s disobedience as freedom. If one rules another by saying, “You must do this,” and, “You will do that,” he breaks the human spirit, making it unfit for God. A person is simply a slave for obeying, unless behind his obedience is the recognition of a holy God.

Many people begin coming to God once they stop being religious, because there is only one master of the human heart— Jesus Christ, not religion. But “Woe is me” if after seeing Him I still will not obey (Isaiah 6:5 , also see Isaiah 6:1). Jesus will never insist that I obey, but if I don’t,I have already begun to sign the death certificate of the Son of God in my soul. When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and say, “I will not obey,” He will never insist. But when I do this, I am backing away from the recreating power of His redemption. It makes no difference to God’s grace what an abomination I am, if I will only come to the light. But “Woe is me” if I refuse the light (see John 3:19-21).

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L

Bible in a Year: Psalms 20-22; Acts 21:1-17

Micah 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: FOCUS MOST ON GOD

Giants.  We must face them.  Yet we need not face them alone.  Focus first, and most, on God. Read 1 Samuel 17 and list the observations David made about Goliath.  I find only two.  One to Saul and one to Goliath’s face: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”  David asks nothing about Goliath’s skill, age, or the weight of the spear, or the size of the shield.  But he gives much thought to God.  The armies of the living God, The Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.

In all, the God-thoughts outnumber Goliath-thoughts nine to two.  How does this ratio compare with yours?  Is your list of blessings four times as long as your list of complaints?  Are you four times as likely to describe the strength of God as you are the demands of your day?  That’s how you face a giant.

Micah 6

What God Is Looking For

Listen now, listen to God:

“Take your stand in court.
    If you have a complaint, tell the mountains;
    make your case to the hills.
And now, Mountains, hear God’s case;
    listen, Jury Earth—
For I am bringing charges against my people.
    I am building a case against Israel.

3-5 “Dear people, how have I done you wrong?
    Have I burdened you, worn you out? Answer!
I delivered you from a bad life in Egypt;
    I paid a good price to get you out of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you—
    and Aaron and Miriam to boot!
Remember what Balak king of Moab tried to pull,
    and how Balaam son of Beor turned the tables on him.
Remember all those stories about Shittim and Gilgal.
    Keep all God’s salvation stories fresh and present.”

6-7 How can I stand up before God
    and show proper respect to the high God?
Should I bring an armload of offerings
    topped off with yearling calves?
Would God be impressed with thousands of rams,
    with buckets and barrels of olive oil?
Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child,
    my precious baby, to cancel my sin?

8 But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
    what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
    be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
    take God seriously.

9 Attention! God calls out to the city!
    If you know what’s good for you, you’ll listen.
So listen, all of you!
    This is serious business.

10-16 “Do you expect me to overlook obscene wealth
    you’ve piled up by cheating and fraud?
Do you think I’ll tolerate shady deals
    and shifty scheming?
I’m tired of the violent rich
    bullying their way with bluffs and lies.
I’m fed up. Beginning now, you’re finished.
    You’ll pay for your sins down to your last cent.
No matter how much you get, it will never be enough—
    hollow stomachs, empty hearts.
No matter how hard you work, you’ll have nothing to show for it—
    bankrupt lives, wasted souls.
You’ll plant grass
    but never get a lawn.
You’ll make jelly
    but never spread it on your bread.
You’ll press apples
    but never drink the cider.
You have lived by the standards of your king, Omri,
    the decadent lifestyle of the family of Ahab.
Because you’ve slavishly followed their fashions,
    I’m forcing you into bankruptcy.
Your way of life will be laughed at, a tasteless joke.
    Your lives will be derided as futile and fake.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Friday, July 17, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Psalm 18:28–36, 46–49

You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
    my God turns my darkness into light.
29 With your help I can advance against a troop[a];
    with my God I can scale a wall.

30 As for God, his way is perfect:
    The Lord’s word is flawless;
    he shields all who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God besides the Lord?
    And who is the Rock except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with strength
    and keeps my way secure.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
    he causes me to stand on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for battle;
    my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You make your saving help my shield,
    and your right hand sustains me;
    your help has made me great.
36 You provide a broad path for my feet,
    so that my ankles do not give way.

The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
    Exalted be God my Savior!
47 He is the God who avenges me,
    who subdues nations under me,
48     who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
    from a violent man you rescued me.
49 Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
    I will sing the praises of your name.

Insight
Psalm 18 seems to be a song of retrospective understanding. In many of David’s psalms we find him being pursued and hunted, first by Saul and later by Absalom. During those times of flight and danger, David sometimes questioned God’s faithfulness, love, and care—wondering why God didn’t intervene on his behalf. In Psalm 18, however, we see a more reflective David. He looked back on his journey and saw continuous evidence of the presence and protection of God along the way (vv. 1–3, 16–19, 25–29, 35–36, 47–50)—even in the seasons of life where that evidence seemed scarce. Now, looking back, David affirmed what he’d questioned—the faithfulness of God.

Light in the Dark
You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. Psalm 18:28

A severe thunderstorm passed through our new town, leaving high humidity and dark skies in its wake. I took our dog, Callie, for an evening stroll. The mounting challenges of my family’s cross-country move grew heavier on my mind. Frustrated by the countless ways things had strayed so far from our high hopes and expectations, I slowed to let Callie sniff the grass. I listened to the creek that runs beside our house. Tiny lights flashed on and off while hovering over the patches of wildflowers climbing up the creek’s bank. Fireflies.

The Lord wrapped me in peace as I watched the blinking lights cutting through the darkness. I thought of the psalmist David singing, “You, Lord, keep my lamp burning” (Psalm 18:28). Proclaiming that God turns his darkness into light, David demonstrated confident faith in the Lord’s provision and protection (vv. 29–30). With God’s strength, he could handle anything that came his way (vv. 32–35). Trusting the living Lord to be with him through all circumstances, David promised to praise Him among the nations and sing the praises of His name (vv. 36–49).

Whether we’re enduring the unpredictable storms in life or enjoying the stillness after the rains have passed, the peace of God’s constant presence lights our way through the darkness. Our living God will always be our strength, our refuge, our sustainer, and our deliverer. By:  Xochitl Dixon

Reflect & Pray
What verses help you trust God’s constant presence? How can relying on God’s sovereign goodness help you walk through storms with confident faith?

Father, please help me trust Your goodness and love even when I sometimes can’t see You in the dark circumstances in life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 17, 2020
The Miracle of Belief

My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom… —1 Corinthians 2:4

Paul was a scholar and an orator of the highest degree; he was not speaking here out of a deep sense of humility, but was saying that when he preached the gospel, he would veil the power of God if he impressed people with the excellency of his speech. Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only by the effectiveness of redemption, not by impressive speech, nor by wooing and persuading, but only by the sheer unaided power of God. The creative power of redemption comes through the preaching of the gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher.

Real and effective fasting by a preacher is not fasting from food, but fasting from eloquence, from impressive diction, and from everything else that might hinder the gospel of God being presented. The preacher is there as the representative of God— “…as though God were pleading through us…” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He is there to present the gospel of God. If it is only because of my preaching that people desire to be better, they will never get close to Jesus Christ. Anything that flatters me in my preaching of the gospel will result in making me a traitor to Jesus, and I prevent the creative power of His redemption from doing its work.

“And I, if I am lifted up…, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically.  Disciples Indeed, 387 R

Bible in a Year: Psalms 18-19; Acts 20:17-38

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 17, 2020
The Strongest Words in the World - #8745

I've had the privilege of playing several different positions. Not on a baseball or football team, but on a wedding team. I've been the groom, I've been the officiating minister, I've been an usher, and I've been the best man. (Not all at the same wedding by the way.) And on more than one occasion, it's been my job to make sure the paperwork gets done while everyone else is "receptioning." The officiating minister has to sign the marriage license, the bride and groom have to sign it of course (the groom, if the groom is still conscious I mean), and two more important people - the witnesses. The powers that be want it on record that there were some people there who witnessed all these wonderful promises being made by the young lovers.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Strongest Words in the World."

Now, when serious business is being transacted, they sometimes require that the signatures be witnessed by a notary public. This witness thing is important when important commitments are being made. Someone cares if you keep your promises. Actually, there is an extremely important person serving as a witness for every promise you make.

In our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus spells out how seriously He takes your commitments whether you do or not. In Matthew 5:37, Jesus simply says, "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the "evil one." Whoa! That's pretty sobering. Jesus says once you've said "Yes," you'd better keep your commitment. It's OK to say "No," but it's not OK to say "Yes" and have it end up being a "No." In fact, Jesus seems to tell us here that unkept promises are the devil's idea. Jesus intends for your "Yes" and your "No" to be some of the strongest words in the world.

And the Lord is standing there as a witness to your promises. In the Book of Malachi, some believers are at the altar. They're weeping and wailing over why God hasn't responded to them. There's obviously a breakdown between them and God, but they can't figure out what it is. Until God says: "You weep and wail because (the Lord) no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands."

"You ask, 'Why?' It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant." No, you won't find God's signature as a witness on your marriage certificate. But He was there, and He was watching. And He says, "The problem between Me and you is because of the problem between you and her or you and him. You're not doing what you promised to do. Until that relationship is right, our relationship won't be right."

Again, God cares deeply about whether or not you do what you've promised to do in your marriage, or in any area where you said a "Yes" or a "No." You not only lose ground with God when you don't keep your commitments, you lose ground with the people around you. They lose respect for you. They find it hard to take you seriously. They find it hard to trust you. And I'll tell you, it hurts a lot to be an untrusted person.

In Ecclesiastes 5:4, the Lord talks about promises you make to Him, and the warning He applies to any promise you make. "God has no pleasure in fools," it says, "fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin."

Satan, who is the inventor of broken promises, loves it when you join his club. God, the One who never lies, really cares if you keep your promises. If you say you'll do it, do it. Whatever it costs, keep your commitments, because it will cost you a whole lot more not to.

Acts 21:18-40, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: LIFT UP YOUR EYES

You could read David’s story in the Bible and wonder what God saw in him.  He fell as often as he stood, he stumbled as often as he conquered.  Yet, for those who know the sound of a Goliath, David gives us this reminder:  Focus on giants — you stumble.  Focus on God — your giants tumble.

You know a Goliath.  You recognize his walk, his talk.  David saw Goliath, yet he heard more. David showed up and raised the subject of the living God.  He saw the giant, mind you, he just saw God more so.  Listen carefully to David’s battle cry:  “You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin.  But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel” (1 Samuel 17:45).  Lift your eyes, giant-slayer!  The God who made a miracle out of David stands ready to make one out of you.

Acts 21:18-40

Jerusalem

 In Jerusalem, our friends, glad to see us, received us with open arms. The first thing next morning, we took Paul to see James. All the church leaders were there. After a time of greeting and small talk, Paul told the story, detail by detail, of what God had done among the non-Jewish people through his ministry. They listened with delight and gave God the glory.

20-21 They had a story to tell, too: “And just look at what’s been happening here—thousands upon thousands of God-fearing Jews have become believers in Jesus! But there’s also a problem because they are more zealous than ever in observing the laws of Moses. They’ve been told that you advise believing Jews who live surrounded by unbelieving outsiders to go light on Moses, telling them that they don’t need to circumcise their children or keep up the old traditions. This isn’t sitting at all well with them.

22-24 “We’re worried about what will happen when they discover you’re in town. There’s bound to be trouble. So here is what we want you to do: There are four men from our company who have taken a vow involving ritual purification, but have no money to pay the expenses. Join these men in their vows and pay their expenses. Then it will become obvious to everyone that there is nothing to the rumors going around about you and that you are in fact scrupulous in your reverence for the laws of Moses.

25 “In asking you to do this, we’re not going back on our agreement regarding non-Jews who have become believers. We continue to hold fast to what we wrote in that letter, namely, to be careful not to get involved in activities connected with idols; to avoid serving food offensive to Jewish Christians; to guard the morality of sex and marriage.”

26 So Paul did it—took the men, joined them in their vows, and paid their way. The next day he went to the Temple to make it official and stay there until the proper sacrifices had been offered and completed for each of them.

Paul Under Arrest
27-29 When the seven days of their purification were nearly up, some Jews from around Ephesus spotted him in the Temple. At once they turned the place upside-down. They grabbed Paul and started yelling at the top of their lungs, “Help! You Israelites, help! This is the man who is going all over the world telling lies against us and our religion and this place. He’s even brought Greeks in here and defiled this holy place.” (What had happened was that they had seen Paul and Trophimus, the Ephesian Greek, walking together in the city and had just assumed that he had also taken him to the Temple and shown him around.)

30 Soon the whole city was in an uproar, people running from everywhere to the Temple to get in on the action. They grabbed Paul, dragged him outside, and locked the Temple gates so he couldn’t get back in and gain sanctuary.

31-32 As they were trying to kill him, word came to the captain of the guard, “A riot! The whole city’s boiling over!” He acted swiftly. His soldiers and centurions ran to the scene at once. As soon as the mob saw the captain and his soldiers, they quit beating Paul.

33-36 The captain came up and put Paul under arrest. He first ordered him handcuffed, and then asked who he was and what he had done. All he got from the crowd were shouts, one yelling this, another that. It was impossible to tell one word from another in the mob hysteria, so the captain ordered Paul taken to the military barracks. But when they got to the Temple steps, the mob became so violent that the soldiers had to carry Paul. As they carried him away, the crowd followed, shouting, “Kill him! Kill him!”

37-38 When they got to the barracks and were about to go in, Paul said to the captain, “Can I say something to you?”

He answered, “Oh, I didn’t know you spoke Greek. I thought you were the Egyptian who not long ago started a riot here, and then hid out in the desert with his four thousand thugs.”

39 Paul said, “No, I’m a Jew, born in Tarsus. And I’m a citizen still of that influential city. I have a simple request: Let me speak to the crowd.”

Paul Tells His Story
40 Standing on the barracks steps, Paul turned and held his arms up. A hush fell over the crowd as Paul began to speak. He spoke in Hebrew.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Matthew 13:44–46

The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Read full chapter

Insight
The eight parables Jesus taught in Matthew 13 are collectively known as “kingdom” parables because they mostly begin with the characteristic phrase “the kingdom of heaven is like” (vv. 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, 52). These parables also unveil a profound truth concerning “the secrets (Greek, mysterion) of the kingdom of heaven” (13:11). In the New Testament the word mysterion or mysteries is used to denote biblical truths which are now known to us only because God in His grace and with Jesus’ coming has been pleased to reveal them to us through the Holy Spirit (Daniel 2:18, 27–28, 47; Romans 16:25–26; Ephesians 1:9; 3:3–6; Colossians 1:25–27; 2:2).

Costly Joy
When a man found it, he . . . went and sold all he had and bought that field. Matthew 13:44

At the sound of the digital melody, all six of us sprang into action. Some slipped shoes on, others simply bolted for the door barefoot. Within seconds we were all sprinting down the driveway chasing the ice cream truck. It was the first warm day of summer, and there was no better way to celebrate than with a cold, sweet treat! There are things we do simply because of the joy it brings us, not out of discipline or obligation.

In the pair of parables found in Matthew 13:44–46, the emphasis is selling everything to gain something else. We might think the stories are about sacrifice. But that’s not the point. In fact, the first story declares it was “joy” that led the man to sell everything and buy the field. Joy drives change—not guilt or duty.

Jesus isn’t one segment of our lives; His claims on us are total. Both men in the stories “sold all” (v. 44). But here’s the best part: the result of this selling of everything is actually gain. We may not have guessed that. Isn’t life in Christ about taking up your cross? Yes. It is. But when we die, we live; when we lose our life, we find it. When we “sell all,” we gain the greatest treasure: Jesus! Joy is the reason; surrender is the response. The treasure of knowing Jesus is the reward. By:  Glenn Packiam


Reflect & Pray
How have you experienced joy in your relationship with Jesus? What is He inviting you to surrender to Him?

Dear Jesus, open my eyes to see the treasure that You are! Direct my heart to You as the source of true and unfailing joy, and let me ever be fixed on You. Grant me the grace to surrender all to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, July 16, 2020
The Concept of Divine Control

…how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! —Matthew 7:11

Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct in this passage for those people who have His Spirit. He urges us to keep our minds filled with the concept of God’s control over everything, which means that a disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek.

Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. And once your mind is truly filled with that thought, when you experience difficulties it will be as easy as breathing for you to remember, “My heavenly Father knows all about this!” This will be no effort at all, but will be a natural thing for you when difficulties and uncertainties arise. Before you formed this concept of divine control so powerfully in your mind, you used to go from person to person seeking help, but now you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those people who have His Spirit, and it works on the following principle: God is my Father, He loves me, and I will never think of anything that He will forget, so why should I worry?

Jesus said there are times when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but you should trust Him. At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the thought that the mind of God is behind all things strong and growing. Not even the smallest detail of life happens unless God’s will is behind it. Therefore, you can rest in perfect confidence in Him. Prayer is not only asking, but is an attitude of the mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. “Ask, and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7).

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

Bible in a Year: Psalms 16-17; Acts 20:1-16

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Free From the Chain of a Lifetime - #8744

What could be more degrading than to be listed as property - owned by another human being - listed along with his corn and his cotton and his tools? But that's what you were if you were a slave for the first 150 years of America's history. It's no wonder many of those slaves risked their lives to try to be free. I saw a TV documentary on the people who risked their lives to help those slaves be free; the courageous men and women of that long escape route known as the Underground Railroad. Of course it wasn't a railroad and it wasn't underground, but it was a series of people and places that assisted runaway slaves to finally live liberated lives. Some of those African Americans who were rescued had just four words on their tombstones, words that powerfully told their whole life story: "Born slave, died free."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Free From the Chain of a Lifetime."

I saw those words and I said to myself, "Hey, that's me. That's my spiritual autobiography: born slave, died free." Because I've been a slave to what one NBA coach called "the disease of me" my whole life. We all have. We've all got this dark side of us that started rearing its ugly head when we were very small.

Babies are cute, but they're totally self-centered, right? I mean, as they grow, nobody teaches them to lie or demand their own way. It's like in the DNA. And I'll be honest, there are parts of me - these ways that I handle things - that I really don't like. The people I love don't like them. I'm sure God doesn't like them. We've all made choices that we're not proud of because of this dark part of us that we really don't want but we really can't change. It's like we're slaves to a darkness the Bible identifies as "sin" - a me-centered life instead of the God-centered life that I was created for.

One of the writers of the Bible can feel our pain on this one. He says, "What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do...I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. What I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:15, 18). Then he cries out like the sin-slave that we all are, "Who will rescue me?" That question is the edge of going free, because you realize you can't get yourself out of this. You need a rescuer. Then this writer finally crosses the river to freedom when he answers his own question, "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25)

Our word for today from the Word of God really bottom lines how we are born slave but how we can die and live free. In John 8, beginning with verse 34, Jesus says: "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin." Amen to that. Then He speaks as the Liberator: "If the Son (of God) sets you free, you will be free indeed." Jesus went to the slave market of sin and He bid for you and me with His life. He said of Himself: "The Son of Man (came)...to give His life as a ransom" (Mark 10:45). It took the battering, the beating, and the butchering of God's Son on the cross to pay for my sin and yours. But His death, followed by His resurrection, broke any power, any claim that sin or Satan has ever had on you.

But you can't go free unless you drop what has chained you and you embrace Jesus, the Liberator who paid for you with His life. For many a slave, the Ohio River was the freedom line. For you, the freedom line runs by the cross of Jesus Christ. No religion can ever set you free. Only the Rescuer from heaven can do that, because only He died to make it possible, and He's reaching for you today.

You need to reach back and say, "Jesus, I'm grabbing you as my Rescuer. I'm yours beginning today." Talk to Him right where you are. And then I hope you'll go to our website. You will find there what will help you be sure that you have begun your relationship with Him. That website is ANewStory.com.

You may have been born sin's slave, you may have lived as sin's slave, but from this day on, you're going to live, and you're going to die, free!

Micah 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: NO EVIL IS BEYOND GOD’S REACH

See the cross on the hill?  Can you hear the soldiers pound the nails?  Jesus’ enemies smirk.  “This time,” Satan whispers, “this time I will win.”  For a sad Friday and a silent Saturday it appeared he had.  What Satan intended as the ultimate evil God used for the ultimate good.  God rolled the rock away, and Jesus walked out on Sunday morning.  If you look closely, you can see Satan scampering from the cemetery with his forked tail between his legs. “Will I ever win?“ he grumbles.  No, he won’t.

Do you believe no evil is beyond God’s reach?  That He can redeem every pit, including one in which you find yourself?  Trust God.  He’ll get you through this.  Will it be easy or quick?  I hope so, but it seldom is.  Yet God will make good out of this mess.  That’s His job.

Micah 5

A Promised Ruler From Bethlehem

]Marshal your troops now, city of troops,
    for a siege is laid against us.
They will strike Israel’s ruler
    on the cheek with a rod.

2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans[e] of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times.”

3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned
    until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
    to join the Israelites.

4 He will stand and shepherd his flock
    in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
    will reach to the ends of the earth.

5 And he will be our peace
    when the Assyrians invade our land
    and march through our fortresses.
We will raise against them seven shepherds,
    even eight commanders,
6 who will rule[f] the land of Assyria with the sword,
    the land of Nimrod with drawn sword.[g]
He will deliver us from the Assyrians
    when they invade our land
    and march across our borders.

7 The remnant of Jacob will be
    in the midst of many peoples
like dew from the Lord,
    like showers on the grass,
which do not wait for anyone
    or depend on man.
8 The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations,
    in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
    like a young lion among flocks of sheep,
which mauls and mangles as it goes,
    and no one can rescue.
9 Your hand will be lifted up in triumph over your enemies,
    and all your foes will be destroyed.

10 “In that day,” declares the Lord,

“I will destroy your horses from among you
    and demolish your chariots.
11 I will destroy the cities of your land
    and tear down all your strongholds.
12 I will destroy your witchcraft
    and you will no longer cast spells.
13 I will destroy your idols
    and your sacred stones from among you;
you will no longer bow down
    to the work of your hands.
14 I will uproot from among you your Asherah poles[h]
    when I demolish your cities.
15 I will take vengeance in anger and wrath
    on the nations that have not obeyed me.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Ecclesiastes 3:1–14

A Time for Everything

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Insight
The book of Ecclesiastes is a book for a postmodern world. The “Preacher,” whom many believe was Solomon, speaks of the frustrations and disappointments of life. Two key phrases in the book are “everything is meaningless” (1:1) and “under the sun” (v. 3). The phrase “everything is meaningless” speaks of life lived on human terms and according to the values of this world, which is described by the phrase “under the sun.” In the end, the Preacher says that the answer to this meaninglessness is to look beyond this world and “remember your Creator” (12:1), who is the only source of true meaning in this life.

To learn more about the book of Ecclesiastes, visit go.odb.org/Ecclesiastes.

Treasure the Moments
[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:11

Su Dongpo (also known as Su Shi) was one of China’s greatest poets and essayists. While in exile and gazing upon a full moon, he wrote a poem to describe how much he missed his brother. “We rejoice and grieve, gather and leave, while the moon waxes and wanes. Since times of old, nothing remains perfect,” he writes. “May our loved ones live long, beholding this beautiful scene together though thousands of miles apart.”

His poem carries themes found in the book of Ecclesiastes. The author, known as the Teacher (1:1), observed that there’s “a time to weep and a time to laugh . . . a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing” (3:4–5). By pairing two contrasting activities, the Teacher, like Su Dongpo, seems to suggest that all good things must inevitably come to an end.

As Su Dongpo saw the waxing and waning of the moon as another sign that nothing remains perfect, the Teacher also saw in creation God’s providential ordering of the world He’d made. God oversees the course of events, and “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (v. 11).

Life may be unpredictable and sometimes filled with painful separations, but we can take heart that everything takes place under God’s gaze. We can enjoy life and treasure the moments—the good and the bad—for our loving God is with us. By:  Poh Fang Chia

Reflect & Pray
What are some things you’re afraid to try because of life’s unpredictability? How can you lean on Jesus as you step forward in courage to forge new friendships and deepen relationships?

Thank You, loving Father, for watching over all seasons of my life. Help me to trust in You and enjoy the life You’ve given me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
My Life’s Spiritual Honor and Duty

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians… —Romans 1:14

Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ, and he spent his life to express it. The greatest inspiration in Paul’s life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that same sense of indebtedness to Christ regarding every unsaved soul? As a saint, my life’s spiritual honor and duty is to fulfill my debt to Christ in relation to these lost souls. Every tiny bit of my life that has value I owe to the redemption of Jesus Christ. Am I doing anything to enable Him to bring His redemption into evident reality in the lives of others? I will only be able to do this as the Spirit of God works into me this sense of indebtedness.

I am not a superior person among other people— I am a bondservant of the Lord Jesus. Paul said, “…you are not your own…you were bought at a price…” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Paul sold himself to Jesus Christ and he said, in effect, “I am a debtor to everyone on the face of the earth because of the gospel of Jesus; I am free only that I may be an absolute bondservant of His.” That is the characteristic of a Christian’s life once this level of spiritual honor and duty becomes real. Quit praying about yourself and spend your life for the sake of others as the bondservant of Jesus. That is the true meaning of being broken bread and poured-out wine in real life.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray! Biblical Ethics, 107 R

Bible in a Year: Psalms 13-15; Acts 19:21-41

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
The Name That Says It All - #8742

My parents didn't put much thought into what they named me. They decided on the way to the hospital when they saw "Ronnie's Used Car Lot" along the way. Come on! "So could I interest you in a little '95 Chevy with low mileage?" It was just driven by a little old lady...never mind. Well, my wife and I, and then our children, have put a little more thought into the names of our kids. Sometimes we pick names that reflect something about the child's heritage. We buy those books that tell you the meanings of thousands of names. We'd pick one that says something. You know? For example, our daughter's name means "consecrated to God," which she really is. Sometimes a person's name is more than just a name; it's actually a statement!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Name That Says It All."

There is no name in the world like this name - Jesus - as in Jesus, the Christ. If you know what that name means, you respond accordingly, it will change your life forever. It will change where you spend your eternity.

Mary and Joseph, Jesus' earthly parents, did not pick His name. God did. In Matthew 1:21, our word for today from the Word of God, the angel of the Lord is explaining to Joseph that his virgin fiancee is going to have a miracle baby, the Son of God, come to earth in a human form. And here are the angel's instructions to Joseph: "You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins."

The name of Jesus means something. It means "Jehovah saves." Or, to use a word we understand very well these days, "Jehovah Rescues." We see it over and over again on the news - rescue stories after a disaster. Of course, the ultimate example might be the World Trade Center on September 11, and the men who risked everything to bring out the people trapped alive there - the rescuers. God doesn't ever want us to forget who Jesus is and why He came to "save," to "rescue His people from their sins." Which clearly implies that we will die because of our sins unless there's a rescue.

There's no way to get yourself out of the rubble, out of the death penalty for hijacking the control of your life from your Creator and, as a result, repeatedly breaking His laws and putting bricks in the wall between Him and you. No amount of religion, no good deeds, no spirituality, no Christian activity is enough to dig you out. Your only hope is the one whose name is "Jehovah Rescues." And unless and until you abandon all other hopes and cling completely to God's Rescuer, Jesus, you are headed for hell's eternal punishment. But see, Jesus already took your punishment when He gave His life for you on the cross. What you have to do is reach out in faith and take for yourself what He did for you there.

So every time you speak Jesus' name, you speak why He came. It's what His life is all about - rescuing the dying. It's what our life should be all about if we belong to Him. Philippians 2 tells us that "at the name of (Jehovah Rescues) Jesus, every knee will bow." John 1:12 says, "To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." To believe in His name is to believe that this One named "Jehovah Rescues" is your only hope.

Has there ever been a time when you've done that? There is no other kind of relationship with Jesus that will get you to heaven; not Jesus as your teacher, not Jesus as your religion, not Jesus as your example, not Jesus as your belief. But Jesus as your rescuer from your sin. If you've never really thrown your arms around God's rescuer and said, "Save me, Lord," don't wait another day to do that.

It would be my great joy to help you do that if I can. And that would be through our website ANewStory.com where many have found out how to begin a relationship with Him. I encourage you to go there today.

This could be the day of your rescue! This could be the day you trade death for life, because life has a name - one name. The name you need to call on - Jesus.

Micah 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD

Life turns every person upside down.  No one escapes unscathed.  Not the woman who discovers her husband is having an affair, not the businessman whose investments are embezzled by a crooked colleague, not the pastor who feels his faith shaken by questions of suffering and fear. We’d be foolish to think we’re invulnerable.  But we’d be just as foolish to think that evil wins the day.

The Bible vibrates with the steady drumbeat of faith.  God recycles evil into righteousness. Joseph, saddled with family rejection, slavery, and imprisonment, emerged triumphant, a hero of his generation.  Among his final words to his brothers are these:  “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).  It’s the repeated pattern in Scripture.  Evil. God. Good. Trust God.  No, really trust Him.  God will make good out of this mess.

Micah 4

The Making of God’s People

ut when all is said and done,
    God’s Temple on the mountain,
Firmly fixed, will dominate all mountains,
    towering above surrounding hills.
People will stream to it
    and many nations set out for it,
Saying, “Come, let’s climb God’s mountain.
    Let’s go to the Temple of Jacob’s God.
He will teach us how to live.
    We’ll know how to live God’s way.”
True teaching will issue from Zion,
    God’s revelation from Jerusalem.
He’ll establish justice in the rabble of nations
    and settle disputes in faraway places.
They’ll trade in their swords for shovels,
    their spears for rakes and hoes.
Nations will quit fighting each other,
    quit learning how to kill one another.
Each man will sit under his own shade tree,
    each woman in safety will tend her own garden.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so,
    and he means what he says.

5 Meanwhile, all the other people live however they wish,
    picking and choosing their gods.
But we live honoring God,
    and we’re loyal to our God forever and ever.

6-7 “On that great day,” God says,
    “I will round up all the hurt and homeless,
    everyone I have bruised or banished.
I will transform the battered into a company of the elite.
    I will make a strong nation out of the long lost,
A showcase exhibit of God’s rule in action,
    as I rule from Mount Zion, from here to eternity.

8 “And you stragglers around Jerusalem,
    eking out a living in shantytowns:
The glory that once was will be again.
    Jerusalem’s daughter will be the kingdom center.”

9-10 So why the doomsday hysterics?
    You still have a king, don’t you?
But maybe he’s not doing his job
    and you’re panicked like a woman in labor.
Well, go ahead—twist and scream, Daughter Jerusalem.
    You are like a woman in childbirth.
You’ll soon be out of the city, on your way
    and camping in the open country.
And then you’ll arrive in Babylon.
    What you lost in Jerusalem will be found in Babylon.
God will give you new life again.
    He’ll redeem you from your enemies.

11-12 But for right now, they’re ganged up against you,
    many godless peoples, saying,
“Kick her when she’s down! Violate her!
    We want to see Zion grovel in the dirt.”
These blasphemers have no idea
    what God is thinking and doing in this.
They don’t know that this is the making of God’s people,
    that they are wheat being threshed, gold being refined.

13 On your feet, Daughter of Zion! Be threshed of chaff,
    be refined of dross.
I’m remaking you into a people invincible,
    into God’s juggernaut to crush the godless peoples.
You’ll bring their plunder as holy offerings to God,
    their wealth to the Master of the earth.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

James 4:4–12

You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”[c]

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[d] or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Footnotes:
James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
James 4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously
James 4:6 Prov. 3:34
James 4:11 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family.

Insight
James’ emphasis on resisting temptation fits within his broader teaching regarding the behavior of believers in Jesus. For James, being “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (1:22 nkjv) is central to being a believer, which echoes Christ’s words that true faith is confirmed by obedience (Luke 6:49; 11:28).

In today’s text, James helps believers understand one way to live with integrity—through humility. James 4:6, a reference to Proverbs 3:34, fits within many Jewish wisdom texts emphasizing the relationship between humility and godly living. Humility allows us to submit naturally to God and His plan (v. 8). Submitting to God means we’re “friends” with Him, instead of the world (v. 4). When we’re friends with God, we naturally live according to His kingdom and values, not the world’s (3:15, 17). As we live and walk humbly with our God (see Micah 6:8), He lifts us up (James 4:10), draws near to us (v. 8), and makes the devil powerless.

Playing the Fool
God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. James 4:6

My most humiliating experience ever was the day I addressed the faculty, students, and friends of a seminary on its fifty-year anniversary. I approached the lectern with my manuscript in hand and looked out on a vast crowd, but my eye fell on the distinguished professors seated in the front row, garbed in academic gowns and looking very serious. I immediately took leave of my senses. My mouth dried up and detached itself from my brain. I fumbled the first few sentences and then I began to improvise. Since I had no idea where I was in my lecture, I began frantically turning pages, while talking a line of nonsense that baffled everyone. Somehow I made it through, crept back to my chair, and stared at the floor. I wanted to die.

However, I learned that humiliation can be a good thing if it leads to humility, for this is the key that opens God’s heart. The Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6). He showers the humble with grace. God Himself said, “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). As we humble ourselves before God, He lifts us up (James 4:10).

Humiliation and shame can bring us to God for His shaping. When we fall, we have fallen into His hands. By:  David H. Roper

Reflect & Pray
What was your most humiliating and embarrassing moment? What good thing did you see come from it?

Loving God, help me to accept humiliation if it in some way brings honor and glory to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Suffering Afflictions and Going the Second Mile
I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. —Matthew 5:39

This verse reveals the humiliation of being a Christian. In the natural realm, if a person does not hit back, it is because he is a coward. But in the spiritual realm, it is the very evidence of the Son of God in him if he does not hit back. When you are insulted, you must not only not resent it, but you must make it an opportunity to exhibit the Son of God in your life. And you cannot imitate the nature of Jesus— it is either in you or it is not. A personal insult becomes an opportunity for a saint to reveal the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus.

The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is not, “Do your duty,” but is, in effect, “Do what is not your duty.” It is not your duty to go the second mile, or to turn the other cheek, but Jesus said that if we are His disciples, we will always do these things. We will not say, “Oh well, I just can’t do any more, and I’ve been so misrepresented and misunderstood.” Every time I insist on having my own rights, I hurt the Son of God, while in fact I can prevent Jesus from being hurt if I will take the blow myself. That is the real meaning of filling “up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ…” (Colossians 1:24). A disciple realizes that it is his Lord’s honor that is at stake in his life, not his own honor.

Never look for righteousness in the other person, but never cease to be righteous yourself. We are always looking for justice, yet the essence of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is— Never look for justice, but never cease to give it.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus.  Facing Reality, 34 R

Bible in a Year: Psalms 10-12; Acts 19:1-20

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
No Life Without the Source - #8740

For my wife, it was sort of a symbol of the day she was born - daffodils. Growing up in the South, she was always able to have some fresh-picked daffodils for her birthday. But then we got married and then we found ourselves living pretty much in the North, where daffodils don't grow that early in the year. So every year, as my honey's birthday approached, I had fun trying to find some florist that somehow had some daffodils for sale, and I did. And once again, my gal had daffodils for her birthday. But even though they were very beautiful, the sad secret is they didn't last long...just like most of the flowers in the florist shop. They started to die as soon as they got cut from their stem.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Life Without the Source."

Someone has said that you and I are living in a "cut-flower civilization." We look like we're alive, but we're really cut off from the source of our life. That would be the God who designed us, who wired us - who planned us. He is, as the Bible says, "The author of life" (Acts 3:15). As spiritual "cut flowers," it's not that we don't try to generate life on our own. But no matter who or what we try, that strange loneliness and emptiness keeps creeping back into our soul. What we don't realize is that our loneliness is cosmic loneliness. Our emptiness is cosmic emptiness. We are missing the God who made us.

The Bible describes our true spiritual condition in eight sobering words. They're found in our word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah 59:2, "Your iniquities (That means sins or wrongdoings.) have separated you from your God." Think of that. Separated from God. In this life that means never finding the purpose of your life; never finding the love that can satisfy your heart.

At the end of this life, "separated from God" means an unspeakable eternity. In the single word the Bible uses, it means hell. God did not put up the wall that keeps us from Him-we did. Those "iniquities" are made up of every time we have done things the way we wanted to do it instead of God's way. And over a lifetime, it's impossible to add all those up. But each sin, each "me first" choice, has put another brick in the wall.

So, separated from the One our life came from, we're slowly dying inside. And every day is one day closer to the ultimate separation of an eternity away from God, of paying sin's horrific death penalty ourselves. But in spite of the way you and I have marginalized our Creator and ignored Him, He wasn't willing to let us be cut off from Him forever. Nope! To reconnect us to Him required the greatest act of love in the history of the human race. In the Bible's words, "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). So Jesus came, and Jesus died, to remove the sin-wall that keeps us cut off from God. In fact, when He was dying on that cross, He was cut off from God the Father so you would never have to be.

That's why your decision about what you do with Jesus is the ultimate life-or-death decision you'll ever make. Because as the Bible makes very clear, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12). Either you have the Son of God in your heart and you have life forever, or you don't have the Son of God in your heart and you will miss eternal life.

You "have the Son of God" when you open your heart to Him, trusting Him as your only hope of having your sins forgiven, of having that wall between you and God finally come down, of going to heaven when you die. It's all about Jesus and whether you say yes or no to Him. And you could say "yes" to Him today and tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. I've run my life. That's wrong. You died for that. I am Yours beginning today."

That's the life you were made for. That's the God you were made for. We want to help you get that relationship with Him started. And that help is at our website ANewStory.com. Please, do not risk another day without Him.

Acts 21:1-17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS WITH YOU

You can’t control the weather, you aren’t in charge of the economy, you can’t un-wreck the car. But you can map out a strategy.  Remember, God is in this crisis.  Ask God to give you two or three steps you can take today.  Seek counsel from someone who’s faced a similar challenge.  Ask friends to pray.  Reach out to a support group.  Most importantly, make a plan.

You’d prefer a miracle for your crisis?  You’d rather see the bread multiplied or the stormy sea turned glassy calm in a finger snap?  God may do this.  Then again, He may say, “I’m with you.  I can use this for good.  Now let’s make a plan.”  God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility, it just empowers it.  So don’t let the crisis paralyze you.  Trust God to do what you can’t.  Obey God, and do what you can.

Acts 21:1-17
On to Jerusalem

After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2 We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. 3 After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. 4 We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5 When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6 After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.

7 We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day. 8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

15 After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.

Paul’s Arrival at Jerusalem
17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Monday, July 13, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Psalm 8:3–4; Revelation 21:22–25

Psalm 8:3–4 (NIV)

When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?[a]

Footnotes:
Psalm 8:4 Or what is a human being that you are mindful of him, / a son of man that you care for him?

 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.

Insight
Psalm 8:3–4 express King David’s amazement that the Creator of the cosmos would pay any mind to the human race. Much of the rest of the psalm, however, reviews what is remarkable about human beings. We’ve been created “a little lower than the angels,” powerful servants of God (v. 5; 104:4; Hebrews 1:7). We’ve been “crowned” by our Maker “with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5). And He’s charged us from the beginning of human history with caring for this wonderful planet (Genesis 1:28). The psalmist notes that God made us “rulers over the works of [His] hands,” including every living creature on earth (Psalm 8:6–8). Ultimately, though, the glory isn’t ours at all. David rightfully begins and ends his psalm with this declaration of praise: “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Look Up!
There will be no night there. Revelation 21:25

When filmmaker Wylie Overstreet showed strangers a live picture of the moon as seen through his powerful telescope, they were stunned at the up-close view, reacting with whispers and awe. To see such a glorious sight, Overstreet explained, “fills us with a sense of wonder that there’s something much bigger than ourselves.”

The psalmist David also marveled at God’s heavenly light. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3–4).

David’s humbling question puts our awe in perspective when we learn that, after God creates His new heaven and earth, we’ll no longer need the moon or the sun. Instead, said John the apostle, God’s shimmering glory will provide all necessary light. “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. . . . There will be no night there” (Revelation 21:23–25).

What an amazing thought! Yet we can experience His heavenly light now—simply by seeking Christ, the Light of the world. In Overstreet’s view, “We should look up more often.” As we do, may we see God. By:  Patricia Raybon

Reflect & Pray
What does God’s heavenly light teach you about Him? When you praise the glory of God, what do you experience?

Our wondrous God, I’m awed by Your holy glory, and I praise You for Your marvelous Light.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, July 13, 2020
The Price of the Vision
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord… —Isaiah 6:1

Our soul’s personal history with God is often an account of the death of our heroes. Over and over again God has to remove our friends to put Himself in their place, and that is when we falter, fail, and become discouraged. Let me think about this personally— when the person died who represented for me all that God was, did I give up on everything in life? Did I become ill or disheartened? Or did I do as Isaiah did and see the Lord?

My vision of God is dependent upon the condition of my character. My character determines whether or not truth can even be revealed to me. Before I can say, “I saw the Lord,” there must be something in my character that conforms to the likeness of God. Until I am born again and really begin to see the kingdom of God, I only see from the perspective of my own biases. What I need is God’s surgical procedure— His use of external circumstances to bring about internal purification.

Your priorities must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God and no one else is taken into account whatsoever. Your prayer will then be, “In all the world there is no one but You, dear God; there is no one but You.”

Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.” Shade of His Hand, 1223 L

Bible in a Year: Psalms 7-9; Acts 18

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, July 13, 2020
Playing With All Your Heart - #8741

Our boys were blessed with some great football coaches when they were in high school. They worked their players hard. Let me tell you, they conditioned them well, and they produced champions. One lesson the coaches taught our team certainly went against their natural instincts. I mean, no one is real anxious to get injured. A player's natural tendency is to hold back a little when they're making a hit on another player, or when they're blocking, or when they're tackling so they won't get hurt. You know, you want to be careful so you're not injured. Well, the coaches tell you that's a mistake; that's the best way to get hurt is to play tentatively, play half-heartedly. Here's how they put it, "Either give it all you've got or don't play." Okay.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Playing With All Your Heart."

Our word for today from the Word of God is a verse that actually could be a life principle. It's a motto that you could repeat to yourself often at work, playing sports, studying, doing dirty work, listening to someone, trying to finish a difficult job. Here's the principle from God's Word. It's in Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."

The coach would like that. Whatever position you're playing in life, don't play tentatively. Throw yourself into it with everything you've got. In the words of Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart." Whatever you do! If you asked our kids something that they heard over and over again growing up from their parents, they might very well tell you those four words that we tried to make a life motto, "with all your heart." Jim Elliott, the martyred missionary and actually one of my personal heroes, said it this way, "Wherever you are, be all there!"

If you have to do something anyway, why not do it with everything you've got? If you have to be somewhere, why not be all there? I saw a little slice of wisdom on a kitchen wall plaque. It said, "Lord, help me do with a smile the things I have to do anyway." That's good.

God's call to all of us who belong to Him is to be a 100-percenter in anything and everything we do. So when someone is talking with you, you listen with all your heart, as if they are the only person on earth and the only thing you have to do. When you work, you focus...you do it with all your heart. When it's time to pray, you pray with all your heart. You play with all your heart. You study with all your heart. You help out with all your heart.

That's the attitude of someone who knows that ultimately he or she is living a God-planned life. Now you might say, "Well, I don't like the situation I'm in." That shouldn't be what determines your attitude. You make every situation the best it can be when you tackle it like the Bible says, "with all your might," "with all your heart."

Remember, God said whatever you do, do it with all your heart. And not just the things you feel like doing. There's something actually very intoxicating, something magnetic about a person who enters into everything they do passionately and wholeheartedly. If you've ever known one of those kind of people, those "with all your heart" people, you know that kind of passion is a magnet that draws people.

Everything your hand finds to do, would you do it with intensity? In football, in everyday life, playing tentatively invites injury and it surely invites defeat. So like the coach says, "Either give it all you've got, or don't play!"