Genesis 20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: START WITH YOURSELF - May 19, 2021

“Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). Anyone who thinks Jesus never cracked a joke hasn’t read these words from the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus envisioned a fellow who has a two-by-four sticking out of his eye. He doesn’t see the log in his own eye, but can’t help but notice a man who stands across the street dabbing his eye with a tissue. He declares, “Don’t you know that if you get something in your eye, it can be harmful?”

On target? Yes, sirree, Bob. We have eagle-eye vision when it comes to others but can be blind as moles when we examine ourselves. So, if you want to change the world, begin with yourself. This is how happiness happens.

Genesis 20

 Abraham traveled from there south to the Negev and settled down between Kadesh and Shur. While he was camping in Gerar, Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She’s my sister.”

2-3 So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her. But God came to Abimelech in a dream that night and told him, “You’re as good as dead—that woman you took, she’s a married woman.”

4-5 Now Abimelech had not yet slept with her, hadn’t so much as touched her. He said, “Master, would you kill an innocent man? Didn’t he tell me, ‘She’s my sister’? And didn’t she herself say, ‘He’s my brother’? I had no idea I was doing anything wrong when I did this.”

6-7 God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know your intentions were pure, that’s why I kept you from sinning against me; I was the one who kept you from going to bed with her. So now give the man’s wife back to him. He’s a prophet and will pray for you—pray for your life. If you don’t give her back, know that it’s certain death both for you and everyone in your family.”

8-9 Abimelech was up first thing in the morning. He called all his house servants together and told them the whole story. They were shocked. Then Abimelech called in Abraham and said, “What have you done to us? What have I ever done to you that you would bring on me and my kingdom this huge offense? What you’ve done to me ought never to have been done.”

10 Abimelech went on to Abraham, “Whatever were you thinking of when you did this thing?”

11-13 Abraham said, “I just assumed that there was no fear of God in this place and that they’d kill me to get my wife. Besides, the truth is that she is my half sister; she’s my father’s daughter but not my mother’s. When God sent me out as a wanderer from my father’s home, I told her, ‘Do me a favor; wherever we go, tell people that I’m your brother.’”

14-15 Then Abimelech gave Sarah back to Abraham, and along with her sent sheep and cattle and servants, both male and female. He said, “My land is open to you; live wherever you wish.”

16 And to Sarah he said, “I’ve given your brother a thousand pieces of silver—that clears you of even a shadow of suspicion before the eyes of the world. You’re vindicated.”

17-18 Then Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his maidservants, and they started having babies again. For God had shut down every womb in Abimelech’s household on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

* * *

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Read: Mark 14:3–9

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages[a] and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you,[b] and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

INSIGHT
Pure nard or spikenard (Mark 14:3) is an aromatic oil from a plant root grown in the Himalayas. This explains its costliness—“more than a year’s wages” (v. 5) or “more than three hundred denarii” (esv).A denarius was a laborer’s full day’s wage.

Because its fragrance is often associated with a bride on her wedding day (Song of Songs 1:12; 4:13–14 esv), some scholars believe Mary gave her most precious possession—her personal dowry—to Jesus. Mary’s anointment of Jesus with the expensive nard was timely and necessary. When Jesus died, His body was hastily prepared for burial because of the Sabbath observance (Mark 15:42–46). A group of women had planned to go to the tomb to anoint His body after the Sabbath (16:1), but by that time Jesus had already risen. But six days earlier (John 12:1), Mary had anointed Jesus with perfume “to prepare for [His] burial” (Mark 14:8).

By Elisa Morgan
She Did What She Could
She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Mark 14:8


She loaded the plastic container of cupcakes onto the conveyor belt, sending it toward the cashier. Next came the birthday card and various bags of chips. Hair escaped from her ponytail, crowning her fatigued forehead. Her toddler clamored for attention. The clerk announced the total and the mom’s face fell. “Oh, I guess I’ll have to put something back. But these are for her party,” she sighed, glancing regretfully at her child.

Standing behind her in line, another customer recognized such pain. Jesus’ words to Mary of Bethany echoed in her mind: “She did what she could” (Mark 14:8). After anointing Him with a bottle of expensive nard before His death and burial, Mary was ridiculed by the disciples. Jesus corrected His followers by celebrating what she had done. He didn’t say, “She did all she could,” but rather, “She did what she could.” The lavish cost of the perfume wasn’t His point. It was Mary’s investment of her love in action that mattered. A relationship with Jesus results in a response.

In that moment, before the mom could object, the second customer leaned forward and inserted her credit card into the reader, paying for the purchase. It wasn’t a large expense, and she had extra funds that month. But to that mom, it was everything. A gesture of pure love poured out in her moment of need.

In what unexpected ways has Jesus helped you? What might you do—not all, but what—to love Jesus back in a need you see today?

Father, open my eyes to see You inviting me to do what I can do today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Out of the Wreck I Rise

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? —Romans 8:35

God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble…” (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors…” (Romans 8:37). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors” in the midst of them, not because of our own ingenuity, nor because of our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there.

“Shall tribulation…?” Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be— whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness— it is not able to “separate us from the love of Christ.” Never allow tribulations or the “cares of this world” to separate you from remembering that God loves you (Matthew 13:22).

“Shall…distress…?” Can God’s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

“Shall…famine…?” Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be “more than conquerors,” even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or else some extraordinary thing happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it— the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the “greater works” will be done by prayer (see John 14:12–13).  Baffled to Fight Better, 56 R

Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 7-9; John 6:22-44

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Listening for My Language - #8963

My wife and I had the opportunity to be in Geneva, Switzerland. Or as they say, "Genève." (I'm not sure about my French.) But it's a beautiful, French-speaking city in Switzerland. And since we were with our host most of the time, my wife and I got along just fine. But one day they left us on our own to do a little shopping, and we don't speak French. The first time I knew I was going to have a problem is when we went into this pharmacy, which, of course, was identified in French on the outside. I looked around, I had a couple of questions, and the pharmacist looked at me with a blank stare. Our English wasn't getting through.

Later on, our friend said to us, "Here in this place, if you don't speak their language, tough!" I said, "You mean even if that means money for them? We were trying to buy something." They said, "Hey, those people don't listen until you communicate in their language."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Listening for My Language."

Our word for today from the Word of God - Acts 2, begin reading at verse 4. It's the powerful Day of Pentecost where 3,000 people come to Christ in one day. But before that happened, listen. "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard them speaking in his own language."

Now, these early Christians had the most powerful message in the world; the one who had been crucified in that city only weeks before was now alive and available to be their Savior. But the apostles could have talked all day, like me in that store in Geneva, and never have gotten through - unless they communicated the message in the language of the listener.

And it wasn't a language that was easy for the one who was doing the speaking. Every foreign missionary knows that you've got to do language study before you do anything else. You don't go to Peru and say to somebody there, "Now, as soon as you learn to speak English I have some great news about God for you." Of course not! If you want to communicate Christ to the lost people around you, you've got to say it in their language. That's true in our culture today. We will have to use words that the lost people around us understand; not our "Christianese" that we talk all the time at church.

There's a lot of people, I think, who aren't rejecting our Savior so much as they're rejecting our vocabulary. They don't understand all this Christian talk. It's time we begin to practice the Gospel in everyday language; telling people there's a relationship you're supposed to have and that you don't have because of running your own life - that's sin. But you can have because Jesus paid the death penalty for that, and it's a relationship you must choose. We've got to find some non-religious way to tell them.

Let's think about this; we should be using music they understand if we're going to use music at all, because music is the language of a generation. If we insist that they hear about Christ in the traditional music we're used to, that we like, we'll probably forfeit them. We have to think of music as missionary languages, not just let it be a battleground over styles.

We're going to have to reach people in settings where they're comfortable, not where we're comfortable. We're talking about evangelism in a living room, or a park, or a Bible study at work or at school. If we wait for them to come to our religious turf, we'll probably leave them lost. It's time for God's people to break out of the walls of the church and reach people in places where they already are; addressing subjects they already care about.

We need to meet people where they are with a testimony out of our life that relates to their lives. Thousands came to Christ on this Day of Pentecost - the day that each one heard them speaking in his own language. Would you ask God to show you today how to speak the language of the people around you; to reach them with the words, the music, the issues, and the testimony that they'll understand?

And remember, you've got life or death information to deliver to the people within your reach. Their eternity depends on that information, and they're listening for their language.

Matthew 6:1-18 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily:BEAR WITH ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE - May 18, 2021

There is a way the world should be run. And when others behave in ways we don’t like, we call that a pet peeve. Not a colossal divide or a legal violation, just a pet peeve.

You know, joy is such a precious commodity. Why squander it on a quibble? The phrases we use regarding our pet peeves reveal the person who actually suffers. He “gets under my skin” or “gets on my nerves” or she is such a “pain in my neck.”  Whose skin, nerves, and neck? Ours! Who suffers? We do! Every pet peeve writes a check on our joy account.

For this reason the apostle Paul said, “Be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). The patient person sees all the peculiarities of the world. But rather than react, he bears with them. And this is how happiness happens.


Matthew 6:1-18

The World Is Not a Stage

 “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.

2-4 “When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

Pray with Simplicity
5 “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
    Yes. Yes. Yes.

14-15 “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.

16-18 “When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won’t make you a saint. If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn’t require attention-getting devices. He won’t overlook what you are doing; he’ll reward you well.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Read: Isaiah 9:2–6

The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
    and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
    will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

INSIGHT
In the Old Testament, the word yoke is often used to describe the bondage or slavery the Israelites suffered while under the oppressive rule of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and others. Again and again we see God’s promises to lift this heavy yoke (Exodus 6:6–7; Leviticus 26:13; Isaiah 14:25; Jeremiah 30:8; Ezekiel 34:27). In today’s prophecy from Isaiah 9:4, we read of the lifting of another yoke. In his commentary on Isaiah, Edward Young describes this yoke as “the heavy burden of sin and corruption, of departure from God, and of the evil consequences of such departure.” This spiritual battle was won by the child (Jesus, v. 6), who through His death and resurrection delivers all who believe in Him from the burdensome yoke of sin. Now that we’ve been set free, the apostle Paul encourages us to “stand firm” and not “be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

By Glenn Packiam
Facing the Darkness

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah 9:2

In the mid-1960s, two people participated in research on the effects of darkness on the human psyche. They entered separate caves, while researchers tracked their eating and sleeping habits. One remained in total darkness for 88 days, the other 126 days. Each guessed how long they could remain in darkness and were off by months. One took what he thought was a short nap only to discover he’d slept for 30 hours. Darkness is disorienting.

The people of God found themselves in the darkness of impending exile. They waited, unsure of what would take place. The prophet Isaiah used darkness as a metaphor for their disorientation and as a way of speaking about God’s judgment (Isaiah 8:22). Previously, the Egyptians had been visited with darkness as a plague (Exodus 10:21–29). Now Israel found herself in darkness.

But a light would come. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2). Oppression would be broken, disorientation would end. A Child would come to change everything and bring about a new day—a day of forgiveness and freedom (v. 6).

Jesus did come! And although the darkness of the world can be disorienting, may we experience the comfort of the forgiveness, freedom, and light found in Christ.

What would it look like to embrace a new day of freedom and forgiveness? How can you welcome the light of Christ today?

Dear Jesus, shine Your light into my life. Bring forgiveness and freedom. Help me to live in the light of Your arrival.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Living Simply— Yet Focused

Look at the birds of the air….Consider the lilies of the field… —Matthew 6:26, 28

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin”— they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars, and the moon— all of these simply are as well— yet what a ministry and service they render on our behalf! So often we impair God’s designed influence, which He desires to exhibit through us, because of our own conscious efforts to be consistent and useful. Jesus said there is only one way to develop and grow spiritually, and that is through focusing and concentrating on God. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Do not worry about being of use to others; simply believe on Me.” In other words, pay attention to the Source, and out of you “will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). We cannot discover the source of our natural life through common sense and reasoning, and Jesus is teaching here that growth in our spiritual life comes not from focusing directly on it, but from concentrating on our Father in heaven. Our heavenly Father knows our circumstances, and if we will stay focused on Him, instead of our circumstances, we will grow spiritually— just as “the lilies of the field.”

The people who influence us the most are not those who detain us with their continual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and “the lilies of the field”— simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.

If you want to be of use to God, maintain the proper relationship with Jesus Christ by staying focused on Him, and He will make use of you every minute you live— yet you will be unaware, on the conscious level of your life, that you are being used of Him.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1465 R

Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 4-6; John 6:1-21

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Leave the Choice To the Owner - #8962

It's the issue that can decide who's the senator or congressman in many states. It can decide who the governor is in some states. The battle lines are drawn around the issue of abortion.

Yeah, it's not taxes, or defense spending, or civil rights, or homelessness. It seems like sometimes the most emotional issue oftentimes in our country revolves around that new life that some woman carries inside of her right now. Oh, there's been demonstrating, banners, chants, and slogans. But underneath it all there are actually two logics that war with each other. Pro-life says that a human life is there from conception and no one has the right to destroy that life. And then the pro-choice people say that the person whose body it is should decide what is done with that body. Well, actually, in a sense they're both right. Keep listening.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Leave the Choice To the Owner."

Our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. "Flee from sexual immorality," God says, "all other sins that man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you; whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body."

Okay, this passage settles once and for all the issue of whose body you're walking around in. That's not your body; "you are not your own" the Bible says. You've been made by God, so you're His by creation. You've been paid for by God with the purchase price of His own Son on the cross, so you've been purchased by Him.

Now, the pro-choice advocates use this logic: the person whose body it is should decide what is done with it. I agree with that! Because, see, if that happened, we wouldn't have many abortions to decide about, because God says sexual love; it is reserved for married people committed to each other for a lifetime. And if God is the owner, and we let the owner of the body decide what we do with that body, well then there won't be babies conceived outside of marriage. There will be very few unwanted babies.

Psalm 139 and other passages in the Bible make it very clear that from the very beginning God initiates a new life at conception, and He reserves the right to end any life that He starts, but only the one who starts the life has that right - the creator, the purchaser. And His choice for your body is that it remains pure. It's not yours to mess around with.

His choice for that body that is His really, is that sex be kept special; that you don't flirt with sexual sin by seeing how far you can go; first base, second base, third base as teenagers used to say. And then quickly try to throw the transmission into reverse just as you get to the edge so you can remain a technical virgin.

No, you don't do that with God's body. When we use sex outside the boundaries of marriage, we start a chain reaction of guilt, loss of respect, loss of intimacy, future relationships - ugly choices.

Our body - our life - belongs to Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "You were created by Him and for Him." He made us; He paid for us with His life. We leave the choices about our body, about our future to Him. But see, we haven't lived that way. And someone might be listening right now and saying, "Ron, if I had it to do over again, I would do it very differently."

We all bear the guilt and the shame of the places that we have done it other than God's way. And the good news is that while God hates the sin that we do, He loves us, the sinners. The Bible says, "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners." He died for you.

This could be the day that everything you've ever wished you could ever get rid of, you could leave at His cross - a new beginning. You might have started listening dirty, but by the end of this day you'll be clean inside, forgiven by the One who died so you could be. You tell Him today, "Jesus, I am yours." And that miracle happens.

Our website's all about it - ANewStory.com. Would you go there today? Let this be the day that whatever you've done before today, you'll be clean from now on.

Genesis 19 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 Max Lucado Daily:EVERYONE NEEDS A CHEERLEADER - May 17, 2021

Every person needs to hear a “wonderful.” Here’s why: companies spend billions of dollars to convince us that we are chubby, smelly, ugly, and out-of-date. Inadequacy indwells a billion hearts. Would you distribute encouragement? Will you make some happiness happen? Will you remind humanity that we are made in God’s image? That we are chosen and destined and loved?

Start by listening intently. Ask someone to tell you his or her story. Give the rarest of gifts: your full attention. Praise abundantly. Biblical encouragement is no casual kind word, but rather a premeditated resolve to lift the spirit of another person. Everyone needs a cheerleader. Give the gift that God loves to give: the gift of encouragement. This is how happiness happens.

Genesis 19

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the city gate. He saw them and got up to welcome them, bowing before them and said, “Please, my friends, come to my house and stay the night. Wash up. You can rise early and be on your way refreshed.”

They said, “No, we’ll sleep in the street.”

3 But he insisted, wouldn’t take no for an answer; and they relented and went home with him. Lot fixed a hot meal for them and they ate.

4-5 Before they went to bed, men from all over the city of Sodom, young and old, descended on the house from all sides and boxed them in. They yelled to Lot, “Where are the men who are staying with you for the night? Bring them out so we can have our sport with them!”

6-8 Lot went out, barring the door behind him, and said, “Brothers, please, don’t be vile! Look, I have two daughters, virgins; let me bring them out; you can take your pleasure with them, but don’t touch these men—they’re my guests.”

9 They said, “Get lost! You drop in from nowhere and now you’re going to tell us how to run our lives. We’ll treat you worse than them!” And they charged past Lot to break down the door.

10-11 But the two men reached out and pulled Lot inside the house, locking the door. Then they struck blind the men who were trying to break down the door, both leaders and followers, leaving them groping in the dark.

12-13 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have any other family here? Sons, daughters—anybody in the city? Get them out of here, and now! We’re going to destroy this place. The outcries of victims here to God are deafening; we’ve been sent to blast this place into oblivion.”

14 Lot went out and warned the fiancés of his daughters, “Evacuate this place; God is about to destroy this city!” But his daughters’ would-be husbands treated it as a joke.

15 At break of day, the angels pushed Lot to get going, “Hurry. Get your wife and two daughters out of here before it’s too late and you’re caught in the punishment of the city.”

16-17 Lot was dragging his feet. The men grabbed Lot’s arm, and the arms of his wife and daughters—God was so merciful to them!—and dragged them to safety outside the city. When they had them outside, Lot was told, “Now run for your life! Don’t look back! Don’t stop anywhere on the plain—run for the hills or you’ll be swept away.”

18-20 But Lot protested, “No, masters, you can’t mean it! I know that you’ve taken a liking to me and have done me an immense favor in saving my life, but I can’t run for the mountains—who knows what terrible thing might happen to me in the mountains and leave me for dead. Look over there—that town is close enough to get to. It’s a small town, hardly anything to it. Let me escape there and save my life—it’s a mere wide place in the road.”

21-22 “All right, Lot. If you insist. I’ll let you have your way. And I won’t stamp out the town you’ve spotted. But hurry up. Run for it! I can’t do anything until you get there.” That’s why the town was called Zoar, that is, Smalltown.

23 The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar.

24-25 Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah—a river of lava from God out of the sky!—and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.

26 But Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.

27-28 Abraham got up early the next morning and went to the place he had so recently stood with God. He looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah, surveying the whole plain. All he could see was smoke belching from the Earth, like smoke from a furnace.

29 And that’s the story: When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.

30 Lot left Zoar and went into the mountains to live with his two daughters; he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his daughters.

31-32 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is getting old and there’s not a man left in the country by whom we can get pregnant. Let’s get our father drunk with wine and lie with him. We’ll get children through our father—it’s our only chance to keep our family alive.”

33-35 They got their father drunk with wine that very night. The older daughter went and lay with him. He was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did. The next morning the older said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Tonight, it’s your turn. We’ll get him drunk again and then you sleep with him. We’ll both get a child through our father and keep our family alive.” So that night they got their father drunk again and the younger went in and slept with him. Again he was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did.

36-38 Both daughters became pregnant by their father, Lot. The older daughter had a son and named him Moab, the ancestor of the present-day Moabites. The younger daughter had a son and named him Ben-Ammi, the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.

* * *

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Monday, May 17, 2021
Read: Jonah 2:1–9

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
    and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me into the depths,
    into the very heart of the seas,
    and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
    swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished
    from your sight;
yet I will look again
    toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing waters threatened me,[b]
    the deep surrounded me;
    seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
    the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
    brought my life up from the pit.

7 “When my life was ebbing away,
    I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
    to your holy temple.

8 “Those who cling to worthless idols
    turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
    will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

INSIGHT
Prophets Jonah, Hosea, and Amos ministered to the Northern Kingdom of Israel when Jeroboam II was king (782–753 bc). Although Jeroboam was unfaithful, God still helped him to successfully push the Assyrians out of Israel (2 Kings 14:23–28). When God called Jonah to minister to Nineveh, a city in Assyria, Jewish nationalistic zeal was running high. Jonah initially refused to proclaim a message of salvation to an enemy nation (Jonah 1:1–3). When he finally obeyed, the Assyrians repented (3:6–10), and God relented from punishing them (4:1–2). But the repentance of the Assyrians was short-lived. Soon a resurgent Assyria attacked Israel (2 Kings 15:19–20, 29). Within three decades of Jonah, Assyria destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 bc) and advanced menacingly towards Judah (2 Kings 17:1–6; 18:9–12). God then raised up Nahum who prophesied against Nineveh, proclaiming her inevitable downfall (Nahum 1:1; 2:3–10; 3:1–7).

Visit ChristianUniversity.org/jonahnahum

Pursued by Love
I will say, “Salvation comes from the Lord.” Jonah 2:9

“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days,” opens the famous poem “The Hound of Heaven” by English poet Francis Thompson. Thompson describes Jesus’ unceasing pursuit—despite his efforts to hide, or even run away, from God. The poet imagines God speaking to him and saying, “I am He whom thou seekest!”

The pursuing love of God is a central theme of the book of Jonah. The prophet received an assignment to tell the people of Nineveh (notorious enemies of Israel) about their need to turn to God, but instead “Jonah ran away from the Lord” (Jonah 1:3). He secured passage on a ship sailing in the opposite direction of Nineveh, but the vessel was soon overcome by a violent storm. To save the ship’s crew, Jonah was thrown overboard before being swallowed by a large fish (1:15–17).

In his own beautiful poem, Jonah recounted that despite his best efforts to run away from God, God pursued him. When Jonah was overcome by his situation and needed to be saved, he cried out to God in prayer and turned toward His love (2:2, 8). God answered and provided rescue not only for Jonah, but for his Assyrian enemies as well (3:10).

As described in both poems, there may be seasons of our lives when we try to run from God. Even then Jesus loves us and is at work guiding us back into restored relationship with Him (1 John 1:9).

When have you tried to run from God? How did He provide rescue?

Jesus, thank You for lovingly pursuing me to offer rescue.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 17, 2021

His Ascension and Our Access

It came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. —Luke 24:51

We have no experiences in our lives that correspond to the events in our Lord’s life after the transfiguration. From that moment forward His life was altogether substitutionary. Up to the time of the transfiguration, He had exhibited the normal, perfect life of a man. But from the transfiguration forward— Gethsemane, the Cross, the resurrection— everything is unfamiliar to us. His Cross is the door by which every member of the human race can enter into the life of God; by His resurrection He has the right to give eternal life to anyone, and by His ascension our Lord entered heaven, keeping the door open for humanity.

The transfiguration was completed on the Mount of Ascension. If Jesus had gone to heaven directly from the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have gone alone. He would have been nothing more to us than a glorious Figure. But He turned His back on the glory, and came down from the mountain to identify Himself with fallen humanity.

The ascension is the complete fulfillment of the transfiguration. Our Lord returned to His original glory, but not simply as the Son of God— He returned to His father as the Son of Man as well. There is now freedom of access for anyone straight to the very throne of God because of the ascension of the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ deliberately limited His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. But now they are His in absolute, full power. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ now has all the power at the throne of God. From His ascension forward He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ.  Biblical Ethics, 111 L

Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 1-3; John 5:25-47


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 17, 2021

It Really is "How You Play the Game" - #8961

When you're five years old, you have a number of those milestone experiences - a lot of "firsts." Like your first soccer game. Yeah, our five-year-old grandson had that. I reminded our daughter that she had joined that much-talked about tribe called "soccer moms." Yeah, our grandson had never played soccer before, and he didn't have an older brother or sister to learn from. So his first game was, shall we say, a great learning experience. And he did a good job. But not good enough for the kind of performance most firstborns expect of themselves. Though he got the ball several times for his team and moved it down the field, he didn't score any goals, and he was bothered that he missed one. Right after the game, he gave his mom his two-word summary of how he thought he did. He just said, "I tried."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It Really is 'How You Play the Game.'"

Well, at least on God's team. That's why Jesus' finish line commendation for His players will be, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21), not "Well done, good and successful servant." What God cares about - what God rewards - is an all-out effort. The results are in His hands. The effort - that's you.

What impresses God about His players is clear in our word for today from the Word of God, when He says in Colossians 3:23-24: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." So you're not playing for the applause of the crowd or even the approval of your teammates. As far as you're concerned, there's one person in that stadium - your Coach, Jesus. If you've got His smile, you're winning; not if you're winning, you've got His smile. He wants you to be able to honestly say, "Coach, I really tried."

If you're playing your position with all your heart, you are pleasing Jesus. Your wholehearted effort may mean you get A's or it may mean you get C's, that you're the best one they've got or just average. Maybe you'll get amazing results or you'll seldom see results. You can't give any more than all your heart. And though we live in a world that cares only if you score, only if you look good, only if you win, you could be free inside knowing you're playing for the One who gives the biggest rewards. And Jesus rewards relentless faithfulness. That means you're still in there fighting when everybody else has dropped out.

Maybe God's assigned you to play a position on His team that's behind the scenes, doing things for Him that few people ever notice or value. And even you feel like what you do doesn't matter much - even to God maybe. Surely it doesn't matter as much as the big, public things some of your brothers and sisters are doing for God. But remember who gets the Super Bowl ring - every member of the team, not just the guys who scored the points. That's how God looks at all of us. Your part, your reward, matters just as much to Him as that of some great pastor or evangelist. In fact, the less glory you get on earth, I think the more He'll give you in heaven for your all-out effort for Him.

So hold your head high, no matter what position you play. Don't let that discouragement wear you down any more - not if you're giving it all you've got. If you are, then in God's eyes, and the only opinion that is that really matters, you are a champion.

Earth may not have many rewards for you. But one day, God's gold medal will hang around your neck!

Genesis 18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A Jungle

It's a jungle out there! And for many, hope is in short supply. What would it take to restore your hope?
Though the answers are abundant, three come quickly to mind. The first would be someone who knows the way out. And from that someone you need vision.  Someone to look you in the face and say, "Don't give up! There's a better place than this." Most importantly, you need direction. If you have a person with direction who can take you to the right place-ah, then you have one who can restore your hope.
To use David's words in Psalm 23, "HE restores my soul!" God, our Shepherd, majors in restoring hope to the soul! Loneliness diminishes because you have fellowship. Despair decreases because you have vision. Confusion begins to lift because you have direction. Please note- you haven't left the jungle. It hasn't changed, but you have. You have hope!
From Traveling Light

Matthew 5:27-48

Adultery and Divorce
27-28 “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those ogling looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.

29-30 “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.

31-32 “Remember the Scripture that says, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him do it legally, giving her divorce papers and her legal rights’? Too many of you are using that as a cover for selfishness and whim, pretending to be righteous just because you are ‘legal.’ Please, no more pretending. If you divorce your wife, you’re responsible for making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual promiscuity). And if you marry such a divorced adulteress, you’re automatically an adulterer yourself. You can’t use legal cover to mask a moral failure.

Empty Promises
33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

Love Your Enemies
38-42 “Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Saturday, May 15, 2021

Read: Philippians 2:12–18

Do Everything Without Grumbling
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[a] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

Read full chapter
Footnotes
Philippians 2:15 Deut. 32:5

INSIGHT
Paul instructs the Philippian believers in Christ to “work out [their] salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). The phrase “fear and trembling” is found in the New Testament only in Paul’s writings (see 1 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 7:15; Ephesians 6:5). The apostle isn’t suggesting that the believers at Philippi should be afraid of the outcome of their salvation. Rather, “fear and trembling” is the response to the divine glory. Philippians 2:12 begins with the word therefore, which connects the command to work out salvation with fear and trembling to what precedes—the exaltation of Christ in the heavenly realms (vv. 9–11). We work out our salvation in awe and reverence of the exalted Christ.

By Jennifer Benson Schuldt

Shining Stars

You will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. Philippians 2:15–16


I can close my eyes and go back in time to the house where I grew up. I remember stargazing with my father. We took turns squinting through his telescope, trying to focus on glowing dots that shimmered and winked. These pinpricks of light, born of heat and fire, stood out in sharp contrast to the smooth, ink-black sky.

Do you consider yourself to be a shining star? I’m not talking about reaching the heights of human achievement, but standing out against a dark background of brokenness and evil. The apostle Paul told the Philippian believers that God would shine in and through them as they held “firmly to the word of life” and avoided grumbling and arguing (Philippians 2:14–16).

Our unity with other believers and our faithfulness to God can set us apart from the world. The problem is that these things don’t come naturally. We constantly strive to overcome temptation so we can maintain a close relationship with God. We wrestle against selfishness to have harmony with our spiritual brothers and sisters.

But still, there’s hope. Alive in each believer, God’s Spirit empowers us to be self-controlled, kind, and faithful (Galatians 5:22–23). Just as we are called to live beyond our natural capacity, God’s supernatural help makes this possible (Philippians 2:13). If every believer became a “shining star” through the power of the Spirit, just imagine how the light of God would repel the darkness around us!


What causes your light for Jesus to dim? What do you need to do to brighten it?


Loving God, I ask Your Spirit to empower me to shine in the darkness. Make me into someone who is known for my love of others and my faithfulness to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 15, 2021

The Habit of Rising to the Occasion

…that you may know what is the hope of His calling… —Ephesians 1:18

Remember that you have been saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your body (see 2 Corinthians 4:10). Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way.

You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it. You must “work out your own salvation” which God has worked in you already (Philippians 2:12). Are your speech, your thinking, and your emotions evidence that you are working it “out”? If you are still the same miserable, grouchy person, set on having your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.

God is the Master Designer, and He allows adversities into your life to see if you can jump over them properly— “By my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:29). God will never shield you from the requirements of being His son or daughter. First Peter 4:12  says, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you….” Rise to the occasion— do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body.

May God not find complaints in us anymore, but spiritual vitality— a readiness to face anything He brings our way. The only proper goal of life is that we manifest the Son of God; and when this occurs, all of our dictating of our demands to God disappears. Our Lord never dictated demands to His Father, and neither are we to make demands on God. We are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. Once we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine with which to feed and nourish others.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 22-23; John 4:31-54

Matthew 5:27-48


, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: God is Righteous

The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:18, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." Yes, righteousness is what God is-and yes, righteousness is what we are not!  And, yes, righteousness is what God requires. But Romans 3:21 tells us, "God has a way to make people right with Him."
In the 23rd Psalm, David said it like this, "He leads me in the path of righteousness." And Daniel 9:14 declares, "Our God is right in everything He does."
The path of righteousness is a narrow, winding trail up a steep hill. At the top of the hill is a cross. At the base of the cross are countless bags full of innumerable sins. Get the point? Calvary is the compost pile for guilt. Wouldn't you like to leave yours there as well?
From Traveling Light

Genesis 18

God appeared to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent. It was the hottest part of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing. He ran from his tent to greet them and bowed before them.

3-5 He said, “Master, if it please you, stop for a while with your servant. I’ll get some water so you can wash your feet. Rest under this tree. I’ll get some food to refresh you on your way, since your travels have brought you across my path.”

They said, “Certainly. Go ahead.”

6 Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. He said, “Hurry. Get three cups of our best flour; knead it and make bread.”

7-8 Then Abraham ran to the cattle pen and picked out a nice plump calf and gave it to the servant who lost no time getting it ready. Then he got curds and milk, brought them with the calf that had been roasted, set the meal before the men, and stood there under the tree while they ate.

9 The men said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?”

He said, “In the tent.”

10 One of them said, “I’m coming back about this time next year. When I arrive, your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was listening at the tent opening, just behind the man.

11-12 Abraham and Sarah were old by this time, very old. Sarah was far past the age for having babies. Sarah laughed within herself, “An old woman like me? Get pregnant? With this old man of a husband?”

13-14 God said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh saying, ‘Me? Have a baby? An old woman like me?’ Is anything too hard for God? I’ll be back about this time next year and Sarah will have a baby.”

15 Sarah lied. She said, “I didn’t laugh,” because she was afraid.

But he said, “Yes you did; you laughed.”

* * *

16 When the men got up to leave, they set off for Sodom. Abraham walked with them to say good-bye.

17-19 Then God said, “Shall I keep back from Abraham what I’m about to do? Abraham is going to become a large and strong nation; all the nations of the world are going to find themselves blessed through him. Yes, I’ve settled on him as the one to train his children and future family to observe God’s way of life, live kindly and generously and fairly, so that God can complete in Abraham what he promised him.”

20-21 God continued, “The cries of the victims in Sodom and Gomorrah are deafening; the sin of those cities is immense. I’m going down to see for myself, see if what they’re doing is as bad as it sounds. Then I’ll know.”

22 The men set out for Sodom, but Abraham stood in God’s path, blocking his way.

23-25 Abraham confronted him, “Are you serious? Are you planning on getting rid of the good people right along with the bad? What if there are fifty decent people left in the city; will you lump the good with the bad and get rid of the lot? Wouldn’t you spare the city for the sake of those fifty innocents? I can’t believe you’d do that, kill off the good and the bad alike as if there were no difference between them. Doesn’t the Judge of all the Earth judge with justice?”

26 God said, “If I find fifty decent people in the city of Sodom, I’ll spare the place just for them.”

27-28 Abraham came back, “Do I, a mere mortal made from a handful of dirt, dare open my mouth again to my Master? What if the fifty fall short by five—would you destroy the city because of those missing five?”

He said, “I won’t destroy it if there are forty-five.”

29 Abraham spoke up again, “What if you only find forty?”

“Neither will I destroy it if for forty.”

30 He said, “Master, don’t be irritated with me, but what if only thirty are found?”

“No, I won’t do it if I find thirty.”

31 He pushed on, “I know I’m trying your patience, Master, but how about for twenty?”

“I won’t destroy it for twenty.”

32 He wouldn’t quit, “Don’t get angry, Master—this is the last time. What if you only come up with ten?”

“For the sake of only ten, I won’t destroy the city.”

33 When God finished talking with Abraham, he left. And Abraham went home.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Sunday, May 16, 2021

Read: Romans 2:12–16

 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

INSIGHT
Rome was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the ancient world, which was evidenced in the makeup of the first-century church comprised of both Jews and gentiles. This diverse audience is reflected in the inclusive way in which Paul chose to open his letter to the believers in Christ there. In chapter 1, he focuses on the spiritual need of the gentiles who, in their rebellion, had spiraled away from God. Then in chapter 2, he presents the spiritual need of the Jews who sought to be made righteous by the law but never could. Thankfully, Paul prefaces these concerns with the good news. In Romans 1:16 we read, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” Both Jew and gentile are the objects of God’s rescuing love.

By Sheridan Voysey
Guilt and Forgiveness
They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts. Romans 2:15

In his book Human Universals, anthropologist Donald Brown lists more than four hundred behaviors that he considers common across humanity. He includes such things as toys, jokes, dances, and proverbs, wariness of snakes, and tying things with string! Likewise, he believes all cultures have concepts of right and wrong, where generosity is praised, promises are valued, and things like meanness and murder understood to be wrong. We all have a sense of conscience, wherever we’re from.

The apostle Paul made a similar point many centuries ago. While God gave the Jewish people the Ten Commandments to clarify right from wrong, Paul noted that since gentiles could do right by obeying their conscience, God’s laws were evidently written on their hearts (Romans 2:14–15). But that didn’t mean people always did what was right. The gentiles rebelled against their conscience (1:32), the Jews broke the Law (2:17–24), leaving both guilty. But through faith in Jesus, God removes the death penalty from all our rule-breaking (3:23–26; 6:23).

Since God created all humans with a sense of right and wrong, each of us will likely feel some guilt over a bad thing we’ve done or a good thing we failed to do. When we confess those sins, God wipes away the guilt like a whiteboard wiped clean. All we have to do is ask Him—whoever we are, wherever we’re from.

Where do you think humanity’s sense of right and wrong comes from? What guilt feelings are you wanting Jesus’ forgiveness for today?

Jesus, I’ve failed to do right and succeeded in doing wrong. Forgive me. Thank You for dying my death so I don’t have to.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, May 16, 2021
The Habit of Recognizing God’s Provision
…you may be partakers of the divine nature… —2 Peter 1:4

We are made “partakers of the divine nature,” receiving and sharing God’s own nature through His promises. Then we have to work that divine nature into our human nature by developing godly habits. The first habit to develop is the habit of recognizing God’s provision for us. We say, however, “Oh, I can’t afford it.” One of the worst lies is wrapped up in that statement. We talk as if our heavenly Father has cut us off without a penny! We think it is a sign of true humility to say at the end of the day, “Well, I just barely got by today, but it was a severe struggle.” And yet all of Almighty God is ours in the Lord Jesus! And He will reach to the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us if we will only obey Him. Does it really matter that our circumstances are difficult? Why shouldn’t they be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we remove God’s riches from our lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it removes God from the throne of our lives, replacing Him with our own self-interests. It causes us to open our mouths only to complain, and we simply become spiritual sponges— always absorbing, never giving, and never being satisfied. And there is nothing lovely or generous about our lives.

Before God becomes satisfied with us, He will take everything of our so-called wealth, until we learn that He is our Source; as the psalmist said, “All my springs are in You” (Psalm 87:7). If the majesty, grace, and power of God are not being exhibited in us, God holds us responsible. “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you…may have an abundance…” (2 Corinthians 9:8)— then learn to lavish the grace of God on others, generously giving of yourself. Be marked and identified with God’s nature, and His blessing will flow through you all the time.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 24-25; John 5:1-24

Matthew 5:27-48 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Jungle

It's a jungle out there! And for many, hope is in short supply. What would it take to restore your hope?
Though the answers are abundant, three come quickly to mind. The first would be someone who knows the way out. And from that someone you need vision.  Someone to look you in the face and say, "Don't give up! There's a better place than this." Most importantly, you need direction. If you have a person with direction who can take you to the right place-ah, then you have one who can restore your hope.
To use David's words in Psalm 23, "HE restores my soul!" God, our Shepherd, majors in restoring hope to the soul! Loneliness diminishes because you have fellowship. Despair decreases because you have vision. Confusion begins to lift because you have direction. Please note- you haven't left the jungle. It hasn't changed, but you have. You have hope!
From Traveling Light

Matthew 5:27-48

Adultery and Divorce
27-28 “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those ogling looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.

29-30 “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.

31-32 “Remember the Scripture that says, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him do it legally, giving her divorce papers and her legal rights’? Too many of you are using that as a cover for selfishness and whim, pretending to be righteous just because you are ‘legal.’ Please, no more pretending. If you divorce your wife, you’re responsible for making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual promiscuity). And if you marry such a divorced adulteress, you’re automatically an adulterer yourself. You can’t use legal cover to mask a moral failure.

Empty Promises
33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

Love Your Enemies
38-42 “Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Saturday, May 15, 2021

Read: Philippians 2:12–18

Do Everything Without Grumbling
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[a] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

Read full chapter
Footnotes
Philippians 2:15 Deut. 32:5

INSIGHT
Paul instructs the Philippian believers in Christ to “work out [their] salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). The phrase “fear and trembling” is found in the New Testament only in Paul’s writings (see 1 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 7:15; Ephesians 6:5). The apostle isn’t suggesting that the believers at Philippi should be afraid of the outcome of their salvation. Rather, “fear and trembling” is the response to the divine glory. Philippians 2:12 begins with the word therefore, which connects the command to work out salvation with fear and trembling to what precedes—the exaltation of Christ in the heavenly realms (vv. 9–11). We work out our salvation in awe and reverence of the exalted Christ.

By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Shining Stars

You will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. Philippians 2:15–16

I can close my eyes and go back in time to the house where I grew up. I remember stargazing with my father. We took turns squinting through his telescope, trying to focus on glowing dots that shimmered and winked. These pinpricks of light, born of heat and fire, stood out in sharp contrast to the smooth, ink-black sky.

Do you consider yourself to be a shining star? I’m not talking about reaching the heights of human achievement, but standing out against a dark background of brokenness and evil. The apostle Paul told the Philippian believers that God would shine in and through them as they held “firmly to the word of life” and avoided grumbling and arguing (Philippians 2:14–16).

Our unity with other believers and our faithfulness to God can set us apart from the world. The problem is that these things don’t come naturally. We constantly strive to overcome temptation so we can maintain a close relationship with God. We wrestle against selfishness to have harmony with our spiritual brothers and sisters.

But still, there’s hope. Alive in each believer, God’s Spirit empowers us to be self-controlled, kind, and faithful (Galatians 5:22–23). Just as we are called to live beyond our natural capacity, God’s supernatural help makes this possible (Philippians 2:13). If every believer became a “shining star” through the power of the Spirit, just imagine how the light of God would repel the darkness around us!

What causes your light for Jesus to dim? What do you need to do to brighten it?

Loving God, I ask Your Spirit to empower me to shine in the darkness. Make me into someone who is known for my love of others and my faithfulness to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 15, 2021
The Habit of Rising to the Occasion

…that you may know what is the hope of His calling… —Ephesians 1:18

Remember that you have been saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your body (see 2 Corinthians 4:10). Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way.

You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it. You must “work out your own salvation” which God has worked in you already (Philippians 2:12). Are your speech, your thinking, and your emotions evidence that you are working it “out”? If you are still the same miserable, grouchy person, set on having your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.

God is the Master Designer, and He allows adversities into your life to see if you can jump over them properly— “By my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:29). God will never shield you from the requirements of being His son or daughter. First Peter 4:12  says, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you….” Rise to the occasion— do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body.

May God not find complaints in us anymore, but spiritual vitality— a readiness to face anything He brings our way. The only proper goal of life is that we manifest the Son of God; and when this occurs, all of our dictating of our demands to God disappears. Our Lord never dictated demands to His Father, and neither are we to make demands on God. We are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. Once we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine with which to feed and nourish others.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 22-23; John 4:31-54

Matthew 5:1-26 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: NTENTIONAL ENCOURAGEMENT - May 14, 2021

Three years into my role as senior minister of our church, a former senior minister returned to live in our city and to serve on our staff. Charles Prince was thirty years my senior, Harvard educated, and a member of the Mensa society. I was in my thirties, a rookie, and a charter member of the Dense society. But Charles said, “There will be no tension in our relationship. I’m going to be your biggest cheerleader.” And he was—for twenty-five years, until the day he died.

You know, intentional encouragement has a Michelangelo impact on people. The sculptor saw the figure of David within the marble and carved it out. The encourager does the same. He sees your best self and he calls it out, not with a chisel, but with words of affirmation. This is how happiness happens.

Matthew 5:1-26

When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

6 “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

7 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

9 “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

10 “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

11-12 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

Salt and Light
13 “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

14-16 “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Completing God’s Law
17-18 “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.

19-20 “Trivialize even the smallest item in God’s Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.

Murder
21-22 “You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.

23-24 “This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.

25-26 “Or say you’re out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. After all, if you leave the first move to him, knowing his track record, you’re likely to end up in court, maybe even jail. If that happens, you won’t get out without a stiff fine.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Friday, May 14, 2021

Read: Psalm 49:5–20

Why should I fear when evil days come,
    when wicked deceivers surround me—
6 those who trust in their wealth
    and boast of their great riches?
7 No one can redeem the life of another
    or give to God a ransom for them—
8 the ransom for a life is costly,
    no payment is ever enough—
9 so that they should live on forever
    and not see decay.
10 For all can see that the wise die,
    that the foolish and the senseless also perish,
    leaving their wealth to others.
11 Their tombs will remain their houses[a] forever,
    their dwellings for endless generations,
    though they had[b] named lands after themselves.

12 People, despite their wealth, do not endure;
    they are like the beasts that perish.

13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves,
    and of their followers, who approve their sayings.[c]
14 They are like sheep and are destined to die;
    death will be their shepherd
    (but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).
Their forms will decay in the grave,
    far from their princely mansions.
15 But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;
    he will surely take me to himself.
16 Do not be overawed when others grow rich,
    when the splendor of their houses increases;
17 for they will take nothing with them when they die,
    their splendor will not descend with them.
18 Though while they live they count themselves blessed—
    and people praise you when you prosper—
19 they will join those who have gone before them,
    who will never again see the light of life.

20 People who have wealth but lack understanding
    are like the beasts that perish.

Read full chapter
Footnotes
Psalm 49:11 Septuagint and Syriac; Hebrew In their thoughts their houses will remain
Psalm 49:11 Or generations, / for they have
Psalm 49:13 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 15.

INSIGHT
In one of Jesus’ last meetings with His disciples, He helped them see how Scriptures like Psalm 49 find new meaning in light of His life, death, and resurrection (Luke 24:44). As evidence of His ability to solve the universal problem of human mortality (Psalm 49:1, 7–9, 15), He showed them His scars and ate a piece of broiled fish (Luke 24:42–43). He’d come to give fullness of meaning to all things written about Him in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms; He showed our need of Him from Scripture (vv. 36–49).

INSIGHT
In one of Jesus’ last meetings with His disciples, He helped them see how Scriptures like Psalm 49 find new meaning in light of His life, death, and resurrection (Luke 24:44). As evidence of His ability to solve the universal problem of human mortality (Psalm 49:1, 7–9, 15), He showed them His scars and ate a piece of broiled fish (Luke 24:42–43). He’d come to give fullness of meaning to all things written about Him in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms; He showed our need of Him from Scripture (vv. 36–49).

By David H. Roper
Taken In

People who . . . lack understanding are like the beasts that perish. Psalm 49:20

My old dog sits by my side and stares off into space. A penny for her thoughts. One thing I know she isn’t thinking about is dying because dogs don’t “understand.” They don’t think about future things. But we do. No matter our age or health or wealth, we at some point think about dying. That’s because we, unlike beasts, have “understanding,” according to Psalm 49:20. We know that we will die, and there’s nothing we can do about it. “No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them” (v. 7). No one has enough money to buy himself or herself out of the grave.

But there is a way out of the finality of death: “God will redeem me from the realm of the dead,” insists the psalmist. “He will surely take me to himself” (v. 15; literally, “He will take me in”). Robert Frost said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” God has redeemed us from death through His Son, “who gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Timothy 2:6). Thus Jesus promised that when our time comes, He will greet us and take us in (John 14:3).

When my time comes, Jesus, who gave to God the price of my life, will welcome me into His Father’s house with open arms.

How do you deal with the thought of dying? On what do you base your confidence of heaven?

I’m grateful, God, that You have provided a place for Your children. I look forward to being at home with You.

Visit ChristianUniversity.org/CA204 to learn more about life after death.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 14, 2021

The Habit of Enjoying Adversity

…that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. —2 Corinthians 4:10

We have to develop godly habits to express what God’s grace has done in us. It is not just a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved so that “the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” And it is adversity that makes us exhibit His life in our mortal flesh. Is my life exhibiting the essence of the sweetness of the Son of God, or just the basic irritation of “myself” that I would have apart from Him? The only thing that will enable me to enjoy adversity is the acute sense of eagerness of allowing the life of the Son of God to evidence itself in me. No matter how difficult something may be, I must say, “Lord, I am delighted to obey You in this.” Instantly, the Son of God will move to the forefront of my life, and will manifest in my body that which glorifies Him.

You must not debate. The moment you obey the light of God, His Son shines through you in that very adversity; but if you debate with God, you grieve His Spirit (see Ephesians 4:30). You must keep yourself in the proper condition to allow the life of the Son of God to be manifested in you, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to self-pity. Our circumstances are the means God uses to exhibit just how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure His Son is. Discovering a new way of manifesting the Son of God should make our heart beat with renewed excitement. It is one thing to choose adversity, and quite another to enter into adversity through the orchestrating of our circumstances by God’s sovereignty. And if God puts you into adversity, He is adequately sufficient to “supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19).

Keep your soul properly conditioned to manifest the life of the Son of God. Never live on your memories of past experiences, but let the Word of God always be living and active in you.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;…  The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 19-21; John 4:1-30

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 14, 2021

More Than Shamrocks - #8960

When St. Patrick's Day rolled around, I realized I'd lost my shamrock tie. Yeah, I was bummed. Of course, everybody else was thrilled. Oh, yeah, yeah I always used to love wearing it for St. Patrick's Day every year to celebrate that part of me that's Irish. In spite of the fact that people insensitively described the color of it as "barf green." It just doesn't seem that anyone is missing it but me.

I'm not sure what old St. Pat would have made of the holiday named for him anyway. I mean, pouring green dye into the Chicago River and parades full of green-dressed celebrants. I do know that Patrick, who's pretty much obscured by the festivities, was quite a guy.

His first trip to Ireland wasn't his choice. He was 14 and he got kidnapped and carried off to Ireland where he became a sheep-tendin', pig-sloppin' slave. But while he was there, he finally realized that Jesus died to forgive his sins, and he put his trust in Him to do just that. Well, Patrick finally escaped and got back home to Britain where he presumably swore he'd never wear anything green!

But his second trip was his choice; a choice that should give a lot of us something to think about.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "More Than Shamrocks."

You know, as Patrick told it, he was asleep one night when he saw Victor, his former Irish captor, in a vision. He said, "He appeared to have come from Ireland with an unlimited number of letters." And Patrick said that the letters seemed to shout with one voice: "We ask you, holy boy, come and walk once more among us." He said he "was cut to the heart and could read no more."

Patrick did walk among them, spreading the Good News about Jesus that had changed his life. He introduced thousands of Irishmen to Jesus. Patrick reflected on the legacy of his life this way: "I am greatly a debtor to God who hath vouchsafed me such great grace that many people by my means should be born again to God."

That's people in heaven. That's St. Patrick's ultimate legacy. It's like the Apostle Paul said about some folks he had introduced to Jesus in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20. "What is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of the Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy." Which raises the question all of us Jesus-followers should be asking: "Who will be in heaven because of me?"

God let Patrick know He was counting on him to bring Jesus to people that he had "walked among." Which raises another question: "Who are my 'walk among them' people?" They're the folks who are part of the daily network of your life, the experiences of your life. We've all got them - the ones who God is counting on us to rescue. He says if "you do not speak out...I will hold you accountable for his blood" (Ezekiel 33:8). Why? Because I knew what that person needed to know to get to heaven and I never told them. We don't need a vision. We've got orders. Jesus said, "You will be my witnesses, telling people about Me" (Acts 1:8).

See, Patrick was biographically credentialed to tell the Irish about Jesus. But that's not just true of the "shamrock saint." Because every Jesus-follower has been biographically credentialed to share Jesus with folks. Including you, because of what you've experienced. Your personal story is your point of entry to ultimately tell them how His story changed your story forever and can change theirs. So you may be able to celebrate (in Patrick's words) "that many people by my means were 'born again to God.'"

Patrick was in a very hard place when he made the greatest discovery of his life - a personal relationship with Jesus. By giving his life to Jesus, he stepped into a greatness he could never have imagined any other way.

Maybe that hard place you're in right now is where you'll finally find what you've spent your whole life looking for - that love relationship with Jesus Christ, who loved you enough to die for you and was powerful enough to walk out of His grave.

He's ready to walk into your life today. You want to get started with Him? Go to our website, we'll help you with that - ANewStory.com.

Open up to Jesus and step into God's great plan for your life.

Genesis 17 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: JESUS SUMMONED THE BEST - May 13, 2021

Encouragement occurs when we “come alongside and call out.” Jesus modeled this. Peter was prone to speak too soon and boast too much. Yet Jesus saw something in the heart of this crusty fisherman worth calling forth. Jesus asked his followers, “Who do you say that I am?” I hear silence. Finally Peter spoke up. He looked at the penniless rabbi from Galilee and he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

Jesus all but jumped for joy at the confession. He even changed the apostle’s name. Simon would now be called Peter, a name that is next of kin to petros or rocky. Simon, the man who expressed rock-solid faith, needed a rock-solid name. Jesus did to Peter what encouragers do. He summoned the best. He built Peter up. Do the same for someone else – this is how happiness happens.

Genesis 17

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, “I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I’ll make a covenant between us and I’ll give you a huge family.”

3-8 Overwhelmed, Abram fell flat on his face.

Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: You’ll be the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning that ‘I’m making you the father of many nations.’ I’ll make you a father of fathers—I’ll make nations from you, kings will issue from you. I’m establishing my covenant between me and you, a covenant that includes your descendants, a covenant that goes on and on and on, a covenant that commits me to be your God and the God of your descendants. And I’m giving you and your descendants this land where you’re now just camping, this whole country of Canaan, to own forever. And I’ll be their God.”

9-14 God continued to Abraham, “And you: You will honor my covenant, you and your descendants, generation after generation. This is the covenant that you are to honor, the covenant that pulls in all your descendants: Circumcise every male. Circumcise by cutting off the foreskin of the penis; it will be the sign of the covenant between us. Every male baby will be circumcised when he is eight days old, generation after generation—this includes house-born slaves and slaves bought from outsiders who are not blood kin. Make sure you circumcise both your own children and anyone brought in from the outside. That way my covenant will be cut into your body, a permanent mark of my permanent covenant. An uncircumcised male, one who has not had the foreskin of his penis cut off, will be cut off from his people—he has broken my covenant.”

15-16 God continued speaking to Abraham, “And Sarai your wife: Don’t call her Sarai any longer; call her Sarah. I’ll bless her—yes! I’ll give you a son by her! Oh, how I’ll bless her! Nations will come from her; kings of nations will come from her.”

17 Abraham fell flat on his face. And then he laughed, thinking, “Can a hundred-year-old man father a son? And can Sarah, at ninety years, have a baby?”

18 Recovering, Abraham said to God, “Oh, keep Ishmael alive and well before you!”

19 But God said, “That’s not what I mean. Your wife, Sarah, will have a baby, a son. Name him Isaac (Laughter). I’ll establish my covenant with him and his descendants, a covenant that lasts forever.

20-21 “And Ishmael? Yes, I heard your prayer for him. I’ll also bless him; I’ll make sure he has plenty of children—a huge family. He’ll father twelve princes; I’ll make him a great nation. But I’ll establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah will give you about this time next year.”

22 God finished speaking with Abraham and left.

23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all his servants, whether houseborn or purchased—every male in his household—and circumcised them, cutting off their foreskins that very day, just as God had told him.

24-27 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised. His son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised the same day together with all the servants of his household, those born there and those purchased from outsiders—all were circumcised with him.

* * *


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Thursday, May 13, 2021

Read: Exodus 17:1–7

Water From the Rock
17 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah[a] and Meribah[b] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

INSIGHT
The Israelites were rapidly developing a reputation for complaining. At Marah, they’d grumbled about water too bitter to drink (Exodus 15:22–24). Then they complained about the lack of food (16:2–3). Now they “quarreled with Moses” about the lack of drinking water (17:2). Exasperated, Moses “cried out to the Lord” (v. 4). God’s counsel to Moses included the command to take “the staff with you with which you struck the Nile” (v. 5). The staff, which Moses also held out when the Red Sea was parted (14:21), served as a visible reminder of what God had done for the people in the past. This time, Moses struck the rock, producing water for the people. The sure cure for grumbling is to recall God’s history of faithfulness.

By Winn Collier
Abundant Waters

Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink. Exodus 17:6

In Australia, a report outlined “a grim story” of extreme drought, heat, and fire. The account described a horrific year with only minuscule rainfall, turning parched brush into tinder. Raging fires torched the countryside. Fish died. Crops failed. All because they didn’t have a simple resource we often take for granted—water, which we all need in order to live.

Israel found itself in its own terrifying dilemma. As the people camped in the dusty, barren desert, we read this alarming line: “There was no water for the people to drink” (Exodus 17:1). The people were afraid. Their throats were dry. The sand sizzled. Their children suffered thirst. Terrified, the people “quarreled with Moses,” demanding water (v. 2). But what could Moses do? He could only go to God.

And God gave Moses odd instructions: “Take . . . the staff [and] . . . strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink” (vv. 5–6). So Moses hit the rock, and out gushed a river, plenty for the people and their cattle. That day, Israel knew that their God loved them. Their God provided abundant water.

If you’re experiencing a drought or wilderness in life, know that God is aware of it and He’s with you. Whatever your need, whatever your lack, may you find hope and refreshment in His abundant waters.

Where are the parched and barren places in your world? How can you look for and trust in God’s abundant waters?

I need Your water, God, Your provision. If You don’t help me, I don’t think I’ll make it. Will You bring me the water I need?

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 13, 2021

The Habit of Keeping a Clear Conscience

…strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men. —Acts 24:16

God’s commands to us are actually given to the life of His Son in us. Consequently, to our human nature in which God’s Son has been formed (see Galatians 4:19), His commands are difficult. But they become divinely easy once we obey.

Conscience is that ability within me that attaches itself to the highest standard I know, and then continually reminds me of what that standard demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which looks out either toward God or toward what we regard as the highest standard. This explains why conscience is different in different people. If I am in the habit of continually holding God’s standard in front of me, my conscience will always direct me to God’s perfect law and indicate what I should do. The question is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I can live without any offense toward anyone. I should be living in such perfect harmony with God’s Son that the spirit of my mind is being renewed through every circumstance of life, and that I may be able to quickly “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2 ; also see Ephesians 4:23).

God always instructs us down to the last detail. Is my ear sensitive enough to hear even the softest whisper of the Spirit, so that I know what I should do? “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…” (Ephesians 4:30). He does not speak with a voice like thunder— His voice is so gentle that it is easy for us to ignore. And the only thing that keeps our conscience sensitive to Him is the habit of being open to God on the inside. When you begin to debate, stop immediately. Don’t ask, “Why can’t I do this?” You are on the wrong track. There is no debating possible once your conscience speaks. Whatever it is— drop it, and see that you keep your inner vision clear.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.
So Send I You

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 17-18; John 3:19-38

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Shrinking Your God - #8959

One of the great names for Jesus in the Bible is the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah." When noted author, C. S. Lewis, created a character to be his Christ-figure in his "Chronicles of Narnia" fantasies, he introduced us to Aslan, the lion-king of Narnia. In Lewis' enchanting books, Narnia is a land where the animals speak, where the forces of evil are strong, and where Aslan, though only seen on rare occasions, is the dominant figure. Lucy is one of the children whose transported to Narnia. In one of the later books in the Chronicles, Lucy is finally reunited with the lion-king, Aslan. I'll let C. S. Lewis take it from here: "'Welcome child,' he said. Lucy said, 'Aslan, you're bigger.' And he answered, 'That is because you are older, little one.' 'Oh, not because you are?' Lucy said. 'Oh, I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.'"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Shrinking Your God."

That's your King's plans for you - that every year you grow, you'll find Him bigger. That's the kind of God you have if you belong to Jesus Christ. You can never reach His limits. He has none. He is all those "omni's" the Bible scholars talk about: omniscient - there's nothing He doesn't know; omnipresent - there's no place where He isn't there; omnipotent - there's nothing He cannot do. The problem is this strange tendency we have in the more challenging times in our life: that the bigger the issue is, the smaller our God seems to be to us. The problem looks unsolvable, the need looks unmeetable, the mountain is unmovable, and we end up handling the hard times as if our God is too small to handle this one.

For all of us God-shrinkers, there's our word for today from the Word of God in Jeremiah 32, beginning with verse 17. It's a wonderful prayer. It's a powerful prayer from the prophet Jeremiah, and perhaps, the very prayer you need to be praying right now in the face of something overwhelming.

Here we go, "Ah, Sovereign Lord, You made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. O great and powerful God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, great are Your purposes and mighty are Your deeds." Now listen to God's response: "Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 'I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for the Lord?'"

Think about it: when your problem suddenly gets bigger than it's ever been, does it get harder for God? When the financial need is greater than you've ever seen, does it suddenly get harder for God to supply it? When your medical condition gets worse, does it get beyond what God can handle? If the person you've been praying for so long seems to be getting farther from God than they've ever been, did God's rescue challenge suddenly get a lot bigger? When the issues with your child or your spouse or your parent take a turn for the worse, is it suddenly harder for God to pull this thing out? For every question like that, watch my lips for the answer: No! "Nothing is too hard for the Lord" including your thing. It gets bigger and harder for us, but there's no such word as "hard" in the vocabulary of God.

When the ancient Jews saw the size of the people and the defenses in the Promised Land, they obsessed on how big their problem was, they totally forgot how much bigger their God was. And they ended up in the wilderness for a long time, and so do we. You may be stressing, sinking and even sinning right now because you're underestimating your God; you're under-trusting Him.

Faith is the key that unlocks all the great things God has for you. And He isn't about to let your faith stay the same size. He's in the faith-enlargement business. He's let something come into your life that defies human solution, that overwhelms human answers, so you can experience how big your King really is. When the bad news gets "badder," your God does not get smaller. He is still the Sovereign Lord. He is still the great and powerful God.

So, let yourself be overwhelmed by the God you have, and you'll find that nothing but Him is truly overwhelming!