Mark 3:1-19 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Will You Be Part of the Team? - November 3, 2021

“I will go to the king,…And if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16). What took Esther from “If I go, I’ll perish” to “If I perish, I perish”?  It had to be Mordecai’s straightforward message: “You were placed here on purpose for a purpose.” So were you, my friend. What if you, like Esther, have an opportunity to act in a way that will bless more people than you can imagine? This is your moment.

The question is not Will God prevail? The question is Will you be part of the team? Heaven will offer each one of us the privilege of participating in the holy work. When your invitation comes, may you find the same courage Esther found, and make the same decision that Mordecai made. Relief will come. May God help you and me to be a part of it.

Mark 3:1-19

Doing Good on the Sabbath

Then he went back in the meeting place where he found a man with a crippled hand. The Pharisees had their eyes on Jesus to see if he would heal him, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath violation. He said to the man with the crippled hand, “Stand here where we can see you.”

4 Then he spoke to the people: “What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?” No one said a word.

5-6 He looked them in the eye, one after another, angry now, furious at their hard-nosed religion. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new! The Pharisees got out as fast as they could, sputtering about how they would join forces with Herod’s followers and ruin him.
The Twelve Apostles

7-10 Jesus went off with his disciples to the sea to get away. But a huge crowd from Galilee trailed after them—also from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, across the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon—swarms of people who had heard the reports and had come to see for themselves. He told his disciples to get a boat ready so he wouldn’t be trampled by the crowd. He had healed many people, and now everyone who had something wrong was pushing and shoving to get near and touch him.

11-12 Evil spirits, when they recognized him, fell down and cried out, “You are the Son of God!” But Jesus would have none of it. He shut them up, forbidding them to identify him in public.

13-19 He climbed a mountain and invited those he wanted with him. They climbed together. He settled on twelve, and designated them apostles. The plan was that they would be with him, and he would send them out to proclaim the Word and give them authority to banish demons. These are the Twelve:

Simon (Jesus later named him Peter, meaning “Rock”),

James, son of Zebedee,

John, brother of James (Jesus nicknamed the Zebedee brothers Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”),

Andrew,

Philip,

Bartholomew,

Matthew,

Thomas,

James, son of Alphaeus,

Thaddaeus,

Simon the Canaanite,

Judas Iscariot (who betrayed him).

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Today's Scripture
2 Corinthians 1:3–8
(NIV)

Praise to the God of All Comfort

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,h the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts usi in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ,j so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation;k if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings,l so also you share in our comfort.

8 We do not want you to be uninformed,m brothers and sisters,a about the troubles we experiencedn in the province of Asia.o We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.

Insight

The Greek word for “comfort” in 2 Corinthians 1:3 (paraklesis) means “coming alongside to help or encourage.” Jesus is our parakletos or advocate (1 John 2:1). The Holy Spirit is another parakletos (John 14:16–17, 26; 15:26; 16:7). This word is so rich in meaning that Bible translations and paraphrases use various words to translate it: “Helper” (esv), “Counselor” (niv 1984), “Comforter” (kjv), “Companion” (ceb), and “Friend” (the message). In 2 Corinthians 1:3, Paul says that God is the parakletos par excellence—“the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.” It’s of great comfort to us that every person of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—are with us in our pain. In directing us to look at the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 3), Paul reminds us that coming alongside to help each other is a family duty and privilege (v. 4). By: K. T. Sim

Comfort Shared

We can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:4

When my daughter Hayley came to visit me, I saw her three-year-old son, Callum, wearing a strange piece of clothing. Called a ScratchMeNot, it’s a long-sleeved top with mittens attached to the sleeves. My grandson Callum suffers from chronic eczema, a skin disease that makes his skin itch, making it rough and sore. “The ScratchMeNot prevents Callum from scratching and injuring his skin,” Hayley explained.

Seven months later, Hayley’s skin flared up, and she couldn’t stop scratching. “I now understand what Callum endures,” Hayley confessed to me. “Maybe I should wear a ScratchMeNot!”

Hayley’s situation reminded me of 2 Corinthians 1:3–5, in which Paul says that our God is “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

Sometimes God allows us to go through trying times such as an illness, loss, or crisis. He teaches us through our suffering to appreciate the greatest suffering that Christ went through on our behalf on the cross. In turn, when we rely on Him for comfort and strength, we’re able to comfort and encourage others in their suffering. Let’s reflect on whom we can extend comfort to because of what God has brought us through. By:  Goh Bee Lee
Reflect & Pray

Whom has God helped you to comfort through your own experiences of suffering? What can you do to help them appreciate Christ’s suffering on the cross through their pain?

God, help me to experience Your comfort in my sufferings and to become a source of comfort to others.

Read more about comforting others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 03, 2021

A Bondservant of Jesus

 have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me… —Galatians 2:20

These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “…for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.

Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ….”

The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.

One student a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?
Share with your friends:

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else.  The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 30-31; Philemon

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 03, 2021

One Roof - #9083

Norway is 35 times smaller than Russia, but they went head-to-head with Russia for the most medals won way back in the 1994 Winter Olympics. One of Norway's speed skaters won the gold medal in Lillehammer. A Norwegian skier stole America's spot at mogul skiing. And one after another, Norway dominated cross-country events. Little Norway was a big winner in those Olympics.

Of course it wasn't always like that. In the late 1980s Norway finally decided they were going to set out to build a team of champions. There were several reasons they succeeded. One had to be that top sports center in Oslo, Norway. It is a huge sports center where athletes from many sports train together in a single location. They can trade tips, they can encourage one another, and they can learn from each other's strengths. Apparently Norway was an Olympic winner because they did it together.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Roof."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 1. We're at verse 27. "Stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel." By the way, this word contending is an athletic word. And then he says, "Without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you." This talks about how the Gospel can get to the lost people who desperately need to hear it. And it talks about how believers can shed their inferiority complex and start acting like winners. The secret just happens to be something like that of Norway's Olympians that year; work together under one roof, well at least spiritually speaking.

You know what? We usually don't. We have our little denominational organizations, our spiritual silos, our methodological cliques, and we're fighting each other over the distinctives of each group. This is no way to win folks! And we aren't. Jesus suggested why the enemy is so strong in our world. When He was accused of casting out demons in Satan's power, He said, "Come on! A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand." He was implying that Satan's kingdom of evil is united.

Christ, on the other hand, allows us to choose, and so we fragment over like maybe this 10% that we don't agree on instead of coming together on the 90% that we do agree on and this urgent mission every believer has to rescue the dying whatever it takes. Instead, Christians end up building a hundred little kingdoms instead of Jesus' one big kingdom.

We end up shooting at each other instead of at our real enemy. We could learn something from those Norwegian champions. Let's work under one spiritual roof! Let's learn from each other's strengths. Let's find a cause larger than our own performance, our own events; things that will pull us together. That cause is defined in this verse, "contending for the faith of the Gospel." That's reaching the lost with the good news about Jesus.

I think there are two things that most of the believers in your community would agree on. There might not be a whole lot, but these are two you can get them to agree on. Number one, the people in your community are lost. Number two, Jesus Christ is their only hope. Isn't that enough to start an agenda to bring us together to do something about those lost people? We could only be divided if we've lost sight of the lost people that surround us, because there are so many more of them. Our only hope is to go into the rescue together. Does it matter – do we care – who gets the credit, who gets the glory as long as they're in heaven with us?

In the 1994 Winter Olympics the world got to see the secret of winning; coming together under one roof to prepare to fight for a cause greater than any one participant. We have a town to win; a community to reach. We have dying people to rescue. It's time we begin to pray together and plan together under one roof for the cause of the Gospel of Christ; the greatest cause on the planet. You know what it says on the roof? The Kingdom of God.

Exodus 33, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Dramatic Deliverance - November 2, 2021

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). Does your view of God include a certain relief and a dramatic deliverance? This is no small question. Indeed, that is the question. For most people, their summary of life reads, “We live in a beautiful but broken world, and we just make the best of it and die.”

But God offers a better story, and his story ends in a better place. His story says our Creator made this world and did not destine it for brokenness. His death gave birth to eternal life. He arose from the dead and is recreating our world and invites all of us to be a part of it. One day he will restore this world to its intended beauty and reclaim his family, and we will live with him forever. That’s the story God offers. Is it your story? I sure hope so.

Exodus 33

God said to Moses: “Now go. Get on your way from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt. Head for the land which I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel ahead of you and I’ll drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. It’s a land flowing with milk and honey. But I won’t be with you in person—you’re such a stubborn, hard-headed people!—lest I destroy you on the journey.”

4 When the people heard this harsh verdict, they were plunged into gloom and wore long faces. No one put on jewelry.

5-6 God said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You’re one hard-headed people. I couldn’t stand being with you for even a moment—I’d destroy you. So take off all your jewelry until I figure out what to do with you.’” So the Israelites stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb on.

* * *

7-10 Moses used to take the Tent and set it up outside the camp, some distance away. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who sought God would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. It went like this: When Moses would go to the Tent, all the people would stand at attention; each man would take his position at the entrance to his tent with his eyes on Moses until he entered the Tent; whenever Moses entered the Tent, the Pillar of Cloud descended to the entrance to the Tent and God spoke with Moses. All the people would see the Pillar of Cloud at the entrance to the Tent, stand at attention, and then bow down in worship, each man at the entrance to his tent.

11 And God spoke with Moses face-to-face, as neighbors speak to one another. When he would return to the camp, his attendant, the young man Joshua, stayed—he didn’t leave the Tent.

* * *

12-13 Moses said to God, “Look, you tell me, ‘Lead this people,’ but you don’t let me know whom you’re going to send with me. You tell me, ‘I know you well and you are special to me.’ If I am so special to you, let me in on your plans. That way, I will continue being special to you. Don’t forget, this is your people, your responsibility.”

14 God said, “My presence will go with you. I’ll see the journey to the end.”

15-16 Moses said, “If your presence doesn’t take the lead here, call this trip off right now. How else will it be known that you’re with me in this, with me and your people? Are you traveling with us or not? How else will we know that we’re special, I and your people, among all other people on this planet Earth?”

17 God said to Moses: “All right. Just as you say; this also I will do, for I know you well and you are special to me. I know you by name.”

18 Moses said, “Please. Let me see your Glory.”

19 God said, “I will make my Goodness pass right in front of you; I’ll call out the name, God, right before you. I’ll treat well whomever I want to treat well and I’ll be kind to whomever I want to be kind.”

20 God continued, “But you may not see my face. No one can see me and live.”

21-23 God said, “Look, here is a place right beside me. Put yourself on this rock. When my Glory passes by, I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. Then I’ll take my hand away and you’ll see my back. But you won’t see my face.”

* * *

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, November 02, 2021
Today's Scripture
Matthew 28:16–20
(NIV)

The Great Commission

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.d 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.e 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,f baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,g 20 and teachingh them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with youi always, to the very end of the age.”

Insight

Matthew 28:17 says, “When they saw [Jesus], they worshiped him; but some doubted.” Theologian D.A. Carson comments: “If the ‘some’ refers not to the Eleven but to other followers, the move from unbelief and fear to faith and joy was for them a ‘hesitant’ one.” This seems to suggest that Matthew presents worship and doubt in contrast to each other. By positioning some as worshiping while others doubted, Matthew may be suggesting that these two responses are incompatible, at least in a specific moment. Worship may help rid us of doubt, and doubt may inhibit our worship. Doubt may plague us from time to time, but worship can shift our focus.

Reaching Others for Jesus

Go and make disciples of all nations.
Matthew 28:19

A decade ago, they didn’t know the name of Jesus. Hidden in the mountains of Mindanao in the Philippines, the Banwaon people had little contact with the outside world. A trip for supplies could take two days, requiring an arduous hike over rugged terrain. The world took no notice of them.

Then a mission group reached out, shuttling people in and out of the region via helicopter. This gained the Banwaon access to needed supplies, crucial medical help, and an awareness of the larger world. It also introduced them to Jesus. Now, instead of singing to the spirits, they chant their traditional tribal songs with new words that praise the one true God. Mission aviation established the critical link.

When Jesus returned to His heavenly Father, He gave His disciples these instructions: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). That command still stands.

Unreached people groups aren’t limited to exotic locales we haven’t heard of. Often, they live among us. Reaching the Banwaon people took creativity and resourcefulness, and it inspires us to find creative ways to overcome the barriers in our communities. That might include an “inaccessible” group you haven’t even considered—someone right in your neighborhood. How might God use you to reach others for Jesus? By:  Tim Gustafson

Reflect & Pray

Who are the hardest-to-reach people in your community? In what ways can you tell them about Jesus?

Father, please use me as You see fit in order that ________ might turn to You in faith.

Read Evangelism: Reaching Out Through Relationships.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 02, 2021
Obedience or Independence?

If you love Me, keep My commandments. —John 14:15

Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.

The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 27-29; Titus 3

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 02, 2021

Something Beautiful From Something Ugly - #9082

We went on this guided tour of this large cave near us. You walk through these winding and really narrow passageways and you admire the wonders that God has created from stalagmites, stalactites, and underground rivers. We entered this one large chamber, and the guide turned on the light and directed our eyes to this high vaulted like cathedral ceiling. You can probably guess what animals we saw hanging up there - bats, lots of bats. The guide told us that the early explorers of this cave had found large quantities of what she called bat guano. If you don't know what that is, never mind. It's gross, that's what it is. But they made lots of money selling that stuff. Really? Who would buy it? I mean, "What good could bat dung possibly be?" Surprise! She said they make gunpowder out of it! And even more surprisingly, they said they can turn that gross stuff into makeup like mascara and lipstick!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Something Beautiful From Something Ugly."

It's amazing how people can turn something seemingly useless and ugly into something useful and even beautiful. What's more amazing is how God does that with our lives! In fact, He's wanting to do that for you - to make something beautiful and useful out of the ugliest things that have happened in your life. And only He can.

One way He does that is described in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. "The Father of compassion and the God of all comfort ... comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." I don't know what kind of "troubles" you've been through; it could be anything from sickness, to abuse, to addiction, to grief. But whatever the trouble, I know that it's made you need the Lord more than ever before. And so if you've reached out to Him, you experienced His compassion, His comfort, His strength, and His support in some deeply personal ways.

Now, in a sense, God wants you to be for other hurting people what He has been for you. That's how He takes the worst things that ever happened to you and makes them into something beautiful. Scott was listening to my youth broadcast one night when he was desperately lonely; desperate enough to be considering suicide. Instead, that night he gave his life to Christ. Later, he told me that he decided to have a ministry to people like himself for the rest of his life. He knew how to help lonely people because he had been the lonely people.

Jane was sexually abused by two different family members. When she brought that awful garbage to Jesus, He began to give her a ministry to abused girls and she has helped a lot of them. Her history of abuse became her strange credentials for caring for abuse victims. My friend Don has had a tremendous ministry to young people that others might call rejects. He's so tender and he's so compassionate toward them. You know why? He says it's because he remembers the hurt he experienced as a child born outside of marriage in a terribly dysfunctional home. God has recycled his wounds into life-changing compassion.

See, that's the kind of thing God wants to do for you if you'll bring Him all that pain, all those wounds, all those memories. He wants to take all that ugly stuff - stuff that looks like it's useless, and He wants to turn it into something very beautiful - a tender, compassionate, helping heart in you. Because of what Christ can do with the waste of our lives, the ones who have been hurt the most, they turn out to be some of the greatest healers in the world.

Exodus 32, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: God’s Heart - November 1, 2021

“Relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews” (Esther 4:14). Mordecai said those words. Though a holocaust had been declared, Mordecai changed from desperate wailing to issuing this bold statement. What happened? Well it dawned on Mordecai that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was alive and well and undefeated in battle. God had not forgotten his role as a covenant keeper. God’s heart was still attached to his people—a remnant living in exile in Persia. The Jews had no king, no temple, no priesthood, no sacrifices. No matter. God is to problems what a hurricane is to a mosquito – no match. Mordecai got this. Do you?

Yes, the journey ahead includes deep waters. But the scripture promises, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…” (Isaiah 43:2).

Exodus 32

“Make Gods for Us”

When the people realized that Moses was taking forever in coming down off the mountain, they rallied around Aaron and said, “Do something. Make gods for us who will lead us. That Moses, the man who got us out of Egypt—who knows what’s happened to him?”

2-4 So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me.” They all did it; they removed the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from their hands and cast it in the form of a calf, shaping it with an engraving tool.

The people responded with enthusiasm: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from Egypt!”

5 Aaron, taking in the situation, built an altar before the calf.

Aaron then announced, “Tomorrow is a feast day to God!”

6 Early the next morning, the people got up and offered Whole-Burnt-Offerings and brought Peace-Offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink and then began to party. It turned into a wild party!

7-8 God spoke to Moses, “Go! Get down there! Your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have fallen to pieces. In no time at all they’ve turned away from the way I commanded them: They made a molten calf and worshiped it. They’ve sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are the gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”

9-10 God said to Moses, “I look at this people—oh! what a stubborn, hard-headed people! Let me alone now, give my anger free reign to burst into flames and incinerate them. But I’ll make a great nation out of you.”

11-13 Moses tried to calm his God down. He said, “Why, God, would you lose your temper with your people? Why, you brought them out of Egypt in a tremendous demonstration of power and strength. Why let the Egyptians say, ‘He had it in for them—he brought them out so he could kill them in the mountains, wipe them right off the face of the Earth.’ Stop your anger. Think twice about bringing evil against your people! Think of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you gave your word, telling them ‘I will give you many children, as many as the stars in the sky, and I’ll give this land to your children as their land forever.’”

14 And God did think twice. He decided not to do the evil he had threatened against his people.

15-16 Moses turned around and came down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of The Testimony. The tablets were written on both sides, front and back. God made the tablets and God wrote the tablets—engraved them.

17 When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting noisily, he said to Moses, “That’s the sound of war in the camp!”

18 But Moses said,

Those aren’t songs of victory,
And those aren’t songs of defeat,
I hear songs of people throwing a party.

19-20 And that’s what it was. When Moses came near to the camp and saw the calf and the people dancing, his anger flared. He threw down the tablets and smashed them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, melted it down with fire, pulverized it to powder, then scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

21 Moses said to Aaron, “What on Earth did these people ever do to you that you involved them in this huge sin?”

22-23 Aaron said, “Master, don’t be angry. You know this people and how set on evil they are. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. This Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.’

24 “So I said, ‘Who has gold?’ And they took off their jewelry and gave it to me. I threw it in the fire and out came this calf.”

25-26 Moses saw that the people were simply running wild—Aaron had let them run wild, disgracing themselves before their enemies. He took up a position at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is on God’s side, join me!” All the Levites stepped up.

27 He then told them, “God’s orders, the God of Israel: ‘Strap on your swords and go to work. Crisscross the camp from one end to the other: Kill brother, friend, neighbor.’”

28 The Levites carried out Moses’ orders. Three thousand of the people were killed that day.

29 Moses said, “You confirmed your ordination today—and at great cost, even killing your sons and brothers! And God has blessed you.”

30 The next day Moses addressed the people: “You have sinned an enormous sin! But I am going to go up to God; maybe I’ll be able to clear you of your sin.”

31-32 Moses went back to God and said, “This is terrible. This people has sinned—it’s an enormous sin! They made gods of gold for themselves. And now, if you will only forgive their sin. .?.?.?But if not, erase me out of the book you’ve written.”

33-34 God said to Moses, “I’ll only erase from my book those who sin against me. For right now, you go and lead the people to where I told you. Look, my Angel is going ahead of you. On the day, though, when I settle accounts, their sins will certainly be part of the settlement.”

35 God sent a plague on the people because of the calf they and Aaron had made.

* * *

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Monday, November 01, 2021
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 47
(NIV)
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

1 Clap your hands,y all you nations;

shout to God with cries of joy.z

2 For the Lord Most Higha is awesome,b

the great Kingc over all the earth.

3 He subduedd nations under us,

peoples under our feet.

4 He chose our inheritancee for us,

the pride of Jacob,f whom he loved.b

5 God has ascendedg amid shouts of joy,h

the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.i

6 Sing praisesj to God, sing praises;

sing praises to our King, sing praises.

7 For God is the King of all the earth;k

sing to him a psalml of praise.

8 God reignsm over the nations;

God is seated on his holy throne.n

9 The nobles of the nations assemble

as the people of the God of Abraham,

for the kingsc of the earth belong to God;o

he is greatly exalted.

Insight

Out of the 150 psalms recorded in the Bible, eleven are attributed to the “sons of Korah.” So, who were they? It appears they descended from Korah (which means “little bald head”), a Levite who joined three others (Dathan, Abiram, and On) in leading a rebellion against Moses’ leadership in Numbers 16:1–40. The consequences of that revolt saw Korah and his followers literally swallowed up by the earth (vv. 31–32). The Lexham Bible Dictionary suggests that “the manner of Korah’s demise likely influenced their (the sons of Korah) approach to composing psalms, which include many references to Sheol [the abode of the dead].” In addition to composing psalms, 1 Chronicles 9:19 says that the sons of Korah were also responsible for protecting the entrance to the tabernacle—Israel’s first “house” of worship and the center of their national life until the temple was constructed. By: Bill Crowder

Ring the Bell

Shout to God with cries of joy.
Psalm 47:1

After an astounding thirty rounds of radiation treatments, Darla was finally pronounced cancer-free. As part of hospital tradition, she was eager to ring the “cancer-free bell” that marked the end of her treatment and celebrated her clean bill of health. Darla was so enthusiastic and vigorous in her celebratory ringing that the rope actually detached from the bell! Peals of joyous laughter ensued.

Darla’s story brings a smile to my face and gives me a sense of what the psalmist might have envisioned when he invited the Israelites to celebrate God’s work in their lives. The writer encouraged them to “clap [their] hands,” “shout to God,” and “sing praises” because God had routed their enemies and chosen the Israelites as His beloved people (Psalm 47:1, 6).

God doesn’t always grant us victory over our struggles in this life, whether health-related or financial or relational. He’s worthy of our worship and praise in even those circumstances because we can trust that He’s still “seated on his holy throne” (v. 8). When He does bring us to a place of healing—at least in a way we recognize in this earthly life—it’s cause for great celebration. We may not have a physical bell to ring, but we can joyfully celebrate His goodness to us with the same kind of exuberance Darla showed. By:  Kirsten Holmberg

Reflect & Pray

How do you show your gratitude to God? What good work has He done in your life recently that merits celebration?

Thank You, God, for Your many gifts to me. I shout my praises to You and clap my hands in celebration of Your work in my life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 01, 2021
  
“You Are Not Your Own”

Do you not know that…you are not your own? —1 Corinthians 6:19

There is no such thing as a private life, or a place to hide in this world, for a man or woman who is intimately aware of and shares in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. God divides the private life of His saints and makes it a highway for the world on one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves. We are called into intimacy with the gospel, and things happen that appear to have nothing to do with us. But God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way. If you refuse, you will be of no value to God in His redemptive work in the world, but will be a hindrance and a stumbling block.

The first thing God does is get us grounded on strong reality and truth. He does this until our cares for ourselves individually have been brought into submission to His way for the purpose of His redemption. Why shouldn’t we experience heartbreak? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down at the door of God’s purpose and enter a slow death through self-pity. And all the so-called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, “Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.” If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come.  Shade of His Hand, 1226 L

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 24-26; Titus 2

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 01, 2021

Dirty Dead, Clean Dead, Dead Dead - #9081

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and honestly, this is a true story. Friends of ours have a big dog. And their neighbor threatened them about that dog. She had this white fluffy rabbit and a rabbit hutch in her backyard. And she said, "I'll tell you, if that dog ever hurts that rabbit of mine, I'll sue you for everything you're worth."

Well, the friends of the friends had to leave a young man in charge of their house for one week, and the first couple of nights he came home from work and everything was fine. The third night he came home from work, and he saw the dog in the backyard playing with a dead animal. Yeah. He went over and he found uh-huh, the bloody, dirty, muddy remains of that rabbit.

He panicked. He ran into the house, he put it in the kitchen sink, he started to scrub it up, hoping somehow he could cover up what he felt the dog had done. So, he literally washed off all the mud, all the blood, he blew it dry so it would be all fluffy again. Can you imagine a blow dryer on a dead rabbit? Come on.

Well, he sneaked out in the middle of the night, put it back in the rabbit hutch and went back to the house. The next morning he heard a scream next door; he heard the woman screaming. He ran over there. He said, "What happened?" She's jumping up and down; she said, "Look! He's back! He's back! My rabbit died two days ago, and I buried him and he's back! It's a miracle!" No ma'am, this is not a miracle. Actually, there are lots of people trying to make that kind of miracle in their own lives, and it won't work.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Dirty Dead, Clean Dead, Dead Dead."

Our word for today from the Word of God - Ephesians 2. I'll be reading in verse 1. "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. For it is by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works so that no one can boast."

Now, it's interesting that this passage says that the condition that we're in before we open our lives to Christ is we're dead. That means we don't need a bath; we need a resurrection like that rabbit. So, what does dead mean? Well, dead here spiritually means that you're separated from God by your sins. The "me first" way that I've lived my whole life; it's called sin. So instead of God being first, I've been first. The result is that the God you were made by and the God you were made for, well, you shut Him out and you're dead inside.

That house sitter had something dead to deal with. He did all he could. He washed it, fluffed it, put it in a nice setting, but it was still dead. See, dirty dead, clean dead, it's all dead dead. Oh, we laugh at his efforts, but it's possible you've been depending on the same approach to get to God to deal with your sin, to get to heaven when you die. Oh, you were a religious person; you've cleaned up the outside: maybe been baptized, or christened, confirmed, you joined a church, you read the Bible, you pray, you help people. It's all good, but it only cleans the outside.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says it's not about anything you can do to get to God. It's trusting in what Christ has done when He died on the cross for you. If there was some way, something you could do to get to God, He would never have allowed His Son to go through the agony and brutality of that cross. It took that to forgive you and to bring you back to life.

Oh, you could make a dirty person clean, but only God can make a dead person live. We try every way to make it on our own spiritually, but we can't. That's why Christ gave His life. If you die without Christ, you'll be separated from God forever. But He's in your reach right now. You feel that knocking on the inside? Let Him in. Tell Him, "Jesus, you're my only hope of being forgiven. your death on the cross. I am yours beginning today."

We'd love to help you begin this relationship with Him. It's what our website's all about. We can connect if you'll get to ANewStory.com.

Jesus won't just make a dead person clean; He'll make a dead person alive who can then live forever.

Exodus 31 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Some Assembly Required

Do you want to see a father's face go ashen? Position yourself nearby as he discovers three words on the box of a just-bought toy: "Some assembly required!" What follows are hours of squeezing A into B, bolting D into F, sliding R over Z, and hoping no one notices if steps four, five, and six were skipped altogether. I'm convinced the devil indwells the details of toy assembly. Somewhere in perdition is a warehouse of stolen toy parts.
"Some assembly required." Not the most welcome sentence but an honest one.  Life is a gift, albeit unassembled. The pieces don't fit. When they don't, take your problem to Jesus. He says, "Bring your problems to Me!" In prayer, state them simply. Present them faithfully, and trust Him reverently!
Before Amen

Exodus 31

Bezalel and Oholiab

God spoke to Moses: “See what I’ve done; I’ve personally chosen Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. I’ve filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him skill and know-how and expertise in every kind of craft to create designs and work in gold, silver, and bronze; to cut and set gemstones; to carve wood—he’s an all-around craftsman.

6-11 “Not only that, but I’ve given him Oholiab, son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan, to work with him. And to all who have an aptitude for crafts I’ve given the skills to make all the things I’ve commanded you: the Tent of Meeting, the Chest of The Testimony and its Atonement-Cover, all the implements for the Tent, the Table and its implements, the pure Lampstand and all its implements, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering and all its implements, the Washbasin and its base, the official vestments, the holy vestments for Aaron the priest and his sons in their priestly duties, the anointing oil, and the aromatic incense for the Holy Place—they’ll make everything just the way I’ve commanded you.”
Sabbath

12-17 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites, ‘Above all, keep my Sabbaths, the sign between me and you, generation after generation, to keep the knowledge alive that I am the God who makes you holy. Keep the Sabbath; it’s holy to you. Whoever profanes it will most certainly be put to death. Whoever works on it will be excommunicated from the people. There are six days for work but the seventh day is Sabbath, pure rest, holy to God. Anyone who works on the Sabbath will most certainly be put to death. The Israelites will keep the Sabbath, observe Sabbath-keeping down through the generations, as a standing covenant. It’s a fixed sign between me and the Israelites. Yes, because in six days God made the Heavens and the Earth and on the seventh day he stopped and took a long, deep breath.’”

18 When he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of Testimony, slabs of stone, written with the finger of God.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Today's Scripture
Psalm 104:10–23
(NIV)

He makes springss pour water into the ravines;

it flows between the mountains.

11 They give watert to all the beasts of the field;

the wild donkeysu quench their thirst.

12 The birds of the skyv nest by the waters;

they sing among the branches.w

13 He waters the mountainsx from his upper chambers;y

the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.z

14 He makes grass growa for the cattle,

and plants for people to cultivate—

bringing forth foodb from the earth:

15 winec that gladdens human hearts,

oild to make their faces shine,

and bread that sustainse their hearts.

16 The trees of the Lordf are well watered,

the cedars of Lebanong that he planted.

17 There the birdsh make their nests;

the stork has its home in the junipers.

18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;i

the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.j

19 He made the moon to mark the seasons,k

and the sunl knows when to go down.

20 You bring darkness,m it becomes night,n

and all the beasts of the foresto prowl.

21 The lions roar for their preyp

and seek their food from God.q

22 The sun rises, and they steal away;

they return and lie down in their dens.r

23 Then people go out to their work,s

to their labor until evening.

Insight

Many psalms celebrate the greatness of God as the Creator and Sustainer of the physical world. These are known as “nature psalms” (for example, Psalms 8, 19, 29, 33, 65, 95, 104, 135, 148). Psalm 104 celebrates and glorifies God as the Creator and Sustainer of all creation. Verses 10–23 describe how He creates, cares for, sustains, and renews His creation. The psalmist also exalts God as the source of life—who holds the power of life and death of every creature on earth—and highlights His providence and provision for His creatures (vv. 24–30). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus too speaks of God as our Sustainer. He asks us to consider how the Father feeds the birds of the air and clothes the grass of the field (Matthew 6:26, 30). By: K. T. Sim

Redeeming the Season

He made the moon to mark the seasons.
Psalm 104:19

Leisa wanted a way to redeem the season. So many of the autumn decorations she saw seemed to celebrate death, sometimes in gruesome and macabre ways.

Determined to counter the darkness in some small way, Leisa began to write things she was grateful for with a permanent marker on a large pumpkin. “Sunshine” was the first item. Soon visitors were adding to her list. Some entries were whimsical: “doodling,” for instance. Others were practical: “a warm house”; “a working car.” Still others were poignant, like the name of a departed loved one. A chain of gratitude began to wind its way around the pumpkin.

Psalm 104 offers a litany of praise to God for things we easily overlook. “[God] makes springs pour water into the ravines,” sang the poet (v. 10). “He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate” (v. 14). Even the night is seen as good and fitting. “You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl” (v. 20). But then, “The sun rises . . . . People go out to their work, to their labor until evening” (vv. 22–23). For all these things, the psalmist concluded, “I will sing praise to my God as long as I live” (v. 33).

In a world that doesn’t know how to deal with death, even the smallest offering of praise to our Creator can become a shining contrast of hope. By:  Tim Gustafson

Reflect & Pray

How do you and your friends deal with the idea of death? What are some ways you might make the world curious about the hope you have in Jesus?

Thank You, Father, for the multiple good things You’ve placed on this earth. Make my life a grateful offering of praise to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 31, 2021
The Trial of Faith

If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…nothing will be impossible for you. —Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything.  Shade of His Hand, 1200 L

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 22-23; Titus 1

Mark 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Don’t Waste Your Failures

My wife and I spent some years as missionaries in Brazil. Our first two years felt fruitless and futile. More often than not I went home frustrated. So we asked God for another plan. We prayed and reread the Epistles, especially focused on Galatians. It occurred to me I was preaching a limited grace. When I compared our gospel message with Paul’s, I saw a difference. His was high-octane good news. Mine was soured legalism. We focused on the gospel, proclaiming forgiveness of sins and resurrection from the dead. We baptized forty people in twelve months! God wasn’t finished with us. We just needed to put the past in the past and God’s plan in place.

Don’t waste your failures by failing to learn from them. Rise up! God hasn’t forgotten you. Keep your head up. You never know what good awaits you.

From Glory Days

Mark 2

A Paraplegic

After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word got around that he was back home. A crowd gathered, jamming the entrance so no one could get in or out. He was teaching the Word. They brought a paraplegic to him, carried by four men. When they weren’t able to get in because of the crowd, they removed part of the roof and lowered the paraplegic on his stretcher. Impressed by their bold belief, Jesus said to the paraplegic, “Son, I forgive your sins.”

6-7 Some religion scholars sitting there started whispering among themselves, “He can’t talk that way! That’s blasphemy! God and only God can forgive sins.”

8-12 Jesus knew right away what they were thinking, and said, “Why are you so skeptical? Which is simpler: to say to the paraplegic, ‘I forgive your sins,’ or say, ‘Get up, take your stretcher, and start walking’? Well, just so it’s clear that I’m the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both?.?.?.” (he looked now at the paraplegic), “Get up. Pick up your stretcher and go home.” And the man did it—got up, grabbed his stretcher, and walked out, with everyone there watching him. They rubbed their eyes, stunned—and then praised God, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”
The Tax Collector

13-14 Then Jesus went again to walk alongside the lake. Again a crowd came to him, and he taught them. Strolling along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” He came.

15-16 Later Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: “What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the misfits?”

17 Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.”
Feasting or Fasting?

18 The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees made a practice of fasting. Some people confronted Jesus: “Why do the followers of John and the Pharisees take on the discipline of fasting, but your followers don’t?”

19-20 Jesus said, “When you’re celebrating a wedding, you don’t skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but not now. As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!”

21-22 He went on, “No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that match. And you don’t put your wine in cracked bottles.”

23-24 One Sabbath day he was walking through a field of ripe grain. As his disciples made a path, they pulled off heads of grain. The Pharisees told on them to Jesus: “Look, your disciples are breaking Sabbath rules!”

25-28 Jesus said, “Really? Haven’t you ever read what David did when he was hungry, along with those who were with him? How he entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, with the Chief Priest Abiathar right there watching—holy bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat—and handed it out to his companions?” Then Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren’t made to serve the Sabbath. The Son of Man is no yes-man to the Sabbath. He’s in charge!”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Saturday, October 30, 2021
Today's Scripture
2 Timothy 1:6–14
(NIV)

Appeal for Loyalty to Paul and the Gospel

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.n 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid,o but gives us power,p love and self-discipline. 8 So do not be ashamedq of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.r Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel,s by the power of God. 9 He has savedt us and calledu us to a holy life—not because of anything we have donev but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealedw through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus,x who has destroyed deathy and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 And of this gospelz I was appointeda a herald and an apostle and a teacher.b 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame,c because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guardd what I have entrusted to him until that day.e

13 What you heard from me,f keepg as the patternh of sound teaching,i with faith and love in Christ Jesus.j 14 Guardk the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Insight

Second Timothy is heavy and heartfelt. Paul knew this would be one of his last letters before his death (4:6–8). Based on the formal introduction (1:1), the letter was meant to be read to Timothy’s congregation or others, but it’s addressed specifically to Timothy, who was a spiritual son to Paul (v. 2). Paul was writing from prison, and he wanted to encourage his protégé that the gospel was worth suffering for (v. 8). But he also longed for a chance to see him again (v. 4) and requested Timothy come quickly: “Do your best to get here before winter” (4:21). By: Julie Schwab

A New Calling

He has saved us and called us to a holy life.
2 Timothy 1:9

Teenage gang leader Casey and his followers broke into homes and cars, robbed convenience stores, and fought other gangs. Eventually, Casey was arrested and sentenced. In prison, he became a “shot caller,” someone who handed out homemade knives during riots.

Sometime later, he was placed in solitary confinement. While daydreaming in his cell, Casey experienced a “movie” of sorts replaying key events of his life—and of Jesus being led to and nailed to the cross and telling him, “I’m doing this for you.” Casey fell to the floor weeping and confessed his sins. Later, he shared his experience with a chaplain, who explained more about Jesus and gave him a Bible. “That was the start of my journey of faith,” Casey said. Eventually, he was released into the mainline prison population, where he was mistreated for his faith. But he felt at peace, because “[he] had found a new calling: telling other inmates about Jesus.”

In his letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul talks about the power of Christ to change lives: God calls us from lives of wrongdoing to follow and serve Jesus (2 Timothy 1:9). When we receive Him by faith, we desire to be a living witness of Christ’s love. The Holy Spirit enables us to do so, even when suffering, in our quest to share the good news (v. 8). Like Casey, let’s live out our new calling. By:  Alyson Kieda

Reflect & Pray

When have you shared the gospel with someone, and what was the result? Did it ever lead to suffering? What happened?

Dear God, thank You for offering me a new calling through Your Son. And thank You for giving me the Spirit to live inside me to guide and empower me to serve You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 30, 2021
Faith

Without faith it is impossible to please Him… —Hebrews 11:6

Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. “We know that all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality. Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33). Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

The sympathy which is reverent with what it cannot understand is worth its weight in gold.  Baffled to Fight Better, 69 L

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 20-21; 2 Timothy 4

Exodus 30, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Troubles Come with Life - October 29, 2021

How do we survive the bitterly cold winds of life? When the account has no cash. When the marriage has no joy. When the crib is empty or the grave is occupied. Well Scripture offers a couple of starchy observations.

First, no one gets a free pass. Trouble knocks at the door of us all. Someone needs that reminder. Someone has been led to believe that the Christian life is a yellow-brick road. Consequently, when the inevitable bad stuff happens, the person is forced to face the tough questions about a God who didn’t keep his promises. To which God says, “Well I never made those promises.” God did promise, in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble.” Troubles come with life. We gain nothing by pretending they don’t.

No one gets a free pass, but we can believe this: one way or another, relief and deliverance will come.

Exodus 30

The Altar of Incense

“Make an Altar for burning incense. Construct it from acacia wood, one and one-half feet square and three feet high with its horns of one piece with it. Cover it with a veneer of pure gold, its top, sides, and horns, and make a gold molding around it with two rings of gold beneath the molding. Place the rings on the two opposing sides to serve as holders for poles by which it will be carried. Make the poles of acacia wood and cover them with a veneer of gold.

6-10 “Place the Altar in front of the curtain that hides the Chest of The Testimony, in front of the Atonement-Cover that is over The Testimony where I will meet you. Aaron will burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he polishes the lamps, and again in the evening as he prepares the lamps for lighting, so that there will always be incense burning before God, generation after generation. But don’t burn on this Altar any unholy incense or Whole-Burnt-Offering or Grain-Offering. And don’t pour out Drink-Offerings on it. Once a year Aaron is to purify the Altar horns. Using the blood of the Absolution-Offering of atonement, he is to make this atonement every year down through the generations. It is most holy to God.”
The Atonement-Tax

11-16 God spoke to Moses: “When you take a head count of the Israelites to keep track of them, all must pay an atonement-tax to God for their life at the time of being registered so that nothing bad will happen because of the registration. Everyone who gets counted is to give a half-shekel (using the standard Sanctuary shekel of a fifth of an ounce to the shekel)—a half-shekel offering to God. Everyone counted, age twenty and up, is to make the offering to God. The rich are not to pay more nor the poor less than the half-shekel offering to God, the atonement-tax for your lives. Take the atonement-tax money from the Israelites and put it to the maintenance of the Tent of Meeting. It will be a memorial fund for the Israelites in honor of God, making atonement for your lives.”
The Washbasin

17-21 God spoke to Moses: “Make a bronze Washbasin; make it with a bronze base. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the Altar. Put water in it. Aaron and his sons will wash their hands and feet in it. When they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the Altar to serve there or offer gift offerings to God, they are to wash so they will not die. They are to wash their hands and their feet so they will not die. This is the rule forever, for Aaron and his sons down through the generations.”
Holy Anointing Oil

22-25 God spoke to Moses: “Take the best spices: twelve and a half pounds of liquid myrrh; half that much, six and a quarter pounds, of fragrant cinnamon; six and a quarter pounds of fragrant cane; twelve and a half pounds of cassia—using the standard Sanctuary weight for all of them—and a gallon of olive oil. Make these into a holy anointing oil, a perfumer’s skillful blend.

26-29 “Use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the Chest of The Testimony, the Table and all its utensils, the Lampstand and its utensils, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offerings and all its utensils, and the Washbasin and its base. Dedicate them so they’ll be soaked in holiness, so that anyone who so much as touches them will become holy.

30-33 “Then anoint Aaron and his sons. Consecrate them as priests to me. Tell the Israelites, ‘This will be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations.’ Don’t pour it on ordinary men. Don’t copy this mixture to use for yourselves. It’s holy; keep it holy. Whoever mixes up anything like it, or puts it on an ordinary person, will be exiled.”
Holy Incense

34-38 God spoke to Moses: “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha, galbanum—and add pure frankincense. Mix the spices in equal proportions to make an aromatic incense, the art of a perfumer, salted and pure—holy. Now crush some of it into powder and place some of it before The Testimony in the Tent of Meeting where I will meet with you; it will be for you the holiest of holy places. When you make this incense, you are not to copy the mixture for your own use. It’s holy to God; keep it that way. Whoever copies it for personal use will be excommunicated.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Friday, October 29, 2021
Today's Scripture
Zephaniah 3:14–17
(NIV)

Sing, Daughter Zion;j

shout aloud,k Israel!

Be glad and rejoicel with all your heart,

Daughter Jerusalem!

15 The Lord has taken away your punishment,

he has turned back your enemy.

The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;m

never again will you fearn any harm.o

16 On that day

they will say to Jerusalem,

“Do not fear, Zion;

do not let your hands hang limp.p

17 The Lord your God is with you,

the Mighty Warrior who saves.q

He will take great delightr in you;

in his love he will no longer rebuke you,s

but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Insight

While the book of Zephaniah (which means “the Lord hides/conceals”) ends on a note of joy and singing in view of God’s restoration (Zephaniah 3:14–20), the bulk of the book records God’s judgment on Judah and the nations. “The day of the Lord” is the primary theme (1:2–3:8). This term refers to a day when God settles accounts with those who oppose Him (a day of judgment) and rewards the remnant of faithful followers (a day of deliverance/salvation). Indeed, “the Mighty Warrior who saves [and] will take great delight in you” (3:17) is also “the Mighty Warrior [who] shouts his battle cry” (1:14). The sovereign God of all the earth has the right to call the nations into account. By: Arthur Jackson

God Sings Over You

[God] will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

Seventeen months after our first child—a boy—was born, along came a little girl. I was overjoyed at the thought of having a daughter, but I was also a bit uneasy because while I knew a few things about little boys, this was uncharted territory. We named her Sarah, and one of my privileges was rocking her to sleep so my wife could rest. I’m not sure why, but I started trying to sing her to sleep, and the song of choice was “You Are My Sunshine.” Whether holding her in my arms or standing above her in her crib, I quite literally sang over her, and loved every minute of it. She’s in her twenties now, and I still call her Sunshine.

We usually think about angels singing. But when was the last time you thought about God singing? That’s right—God singing. And furthermore, when was the last time you thought about Him singing over you? Zephaniah is clear in his message to Jerusalem: “The Lord your God” takes great delight in you, so much so that He “rejoice[s] over you with singing” (3:17). Although this message speaks directly to Jerusalem, it’s likely God sings over us—those who have received Jesus as Savior—too! What song does He sing? Well, Scripture’s not clear on that. But the song is born out of His love, so we can trust it’s true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable (Philippians 4:8). By:  John Blase

Reflect & Pray

What feelings are stirred when you consider God singing over you? Is that something unbelievable or something comforting? Why?

Good Father, the thought that You would sing over me in joy is such an assurance and comfort. Thank You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 29, 2021
Substitution

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21

The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was “made…to be sin….” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of God, but the New Testament says that He came to take “away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior. In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John 14:9, where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was spoken to His disciples.

That Christ died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15)— not, “He died my death”— and that through identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me. The substitution which is taught in the New Testament is twofold— “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19).

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure. The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 18-19; 2 Timothy 3

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 29, 2021

Slowly, But Surely, Submerged - #9080

There's this one restaurant in our area that offers more than food - it offers some unique live entertainment - at this one table. See, it's pretty much in the center of the restaurant where everyone can see. Several unsuspecting diners are sitting at this round table, just minding their own business, eating their meal - as the table starts to rise very, very slowly. So slowly that no one seems to even notice that their food is getting closer to their mouth and that their fork is making a shorter and shorter trip each time. The last time we were there, the diners were chattering and eating away as the table rose nearly to eye level. And then, and only then, did someone begin to realize that they were having to lower their fork to get the food to their mouth!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Slowly, But Surely, Submerged."

It's amazing but true - when a change is gradual, you hardly even notice. Until it's up to your eyes! Satan, who is God's enemy and your enemy; he's counting on that being true in your life. He knows you won't fall for a blatant temptation to do something obviously sinful. That's OK with him. For now, he'll settle with just a small, seemingly harmless, step in that direction. Because he knows that step will lead to another, and another - and ultimately to spiritual disaster you can't even imagine now. He'll destroy you not by explosion, but by erosion.

I love the way the Bible includes real-life stories that help us picture a concept we might otherwise miss. When it comes to the slow but sure takeover of sin and its consequences, the story of Samson just about says it all. Here is a man specially called and gifted by God with personal magnetism, supernatural strength, and spiritual leadership. This man, feared by the Jews' bitter enemies, the Philistines, ends up as their blind and helpless slave, pushing a grinding wheel in prison. Did this happen suddenly? Oh, of course not. Samson wouldn't have fallen for that. It happened one little compromise at a time. Just like the devil is planning to have it happen to you.

According to the Book of Judges, Samson's weakness was women. So, he sees a pagan Philistine woman who looks good to him and he proceeds to marry her - out of God's bounds. When the Philistines want information from Samson, they convince his wife to coax him into telling. The Bible says, "She threw herself on him, sobbing" and he "finally told her."

Well, Samson's next woman is a prostitute, and he's almost trapped by the Philistines while he's with her. Then along comes another woman working with the Philistines named Delilah. They bribe her to find out what the secret of Samson's strength is, which is his hair. Three attempts fail, but the Bible says, "With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death" (Judges 16:16). He tells her his secret, he loses his source of strength, and the Philistines have him.

Now our word for today from the Word of God in James 1:15: "After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." Sin always kills, so stop it when it's small. Maybe you've been falling for Satan's slow but sure seduction. "Just a little"... "just this once"... "everybody else is"... "it's not that bad"... "you deserve it"... "you need it"... "no one will know." One little compromise - to start taking you where you think you will never end up.

You've got to stop that killer strategy with the first look, the first date, the first lie, the first flirtation, the first thoughts of divorce, the first detour from God's Word. This is going to take you where you don't want to go - unless you stop it now. Before today's compromise gives birth to tomorrow's tragedy, run from it.

Exodus 29, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Call to Courage - October 28, 2021

When Mordecai learned that the Persian king had issued a decree to kill the Jews, he urged Esther to reach out to the king. Esther reminded Mordecai that if she went in to the throne room uninvited, the king could have her head. Mordecai responded with the greatest one paragraph call to courage ever spoken by a human tongue.

He said “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you are silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13–14).

Mordecai knew this: relief will come. What he said to Esther, God says to you: you were made for this moment.

Exodus 29-
Consecration of Priests

“This is the ceremony for dedicating them as priests. Take a young bull and two rams, healthy and without defects. Using fine wheat flour but no yeast make bread and cakes mixed with oil and wafers spread with oil. Place them in a basket and carry them along with the bull and the two rams. Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.

5-9 “Then take the vestments and dress Aaron in the tunic, the robe of the Ephod, the Ephod, and the Breastpiece, belting the Ephod on him with the embroidered waistband. Set the turban on his head and place the sacred crown on the turban. Then take the anointing oil and pour it on his head, anointing him. Then bring his sons, put tunics on them and gird them with sashes, both Aaron and his sons, and set hats on them. Their priesthood is upheld by law and is permanent.

9-14 “This is how you will ordain Aaron and his sons: Bring the bull to the Tent of Meeting. Aaron and his sons will place their hands on the head of the bull. Then you will slaughter the bull in the presence of God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Take some of the bull’s blood and smear it on the horns of the Altar with your finger; pour the rest of the blood on the base of the Altar. Next take all the fat that covers the innards, fat from around the liver and the two kidneys, and burn it on the Altar. But the flesh of the bull, including its hide and dung, you will burn up outside the camp. It is an Absolution-Offering.

15-18 “Then take one of the rams. Have Aaron and his sons place their hands on the head of the ram. Slaughter the ram and take its blood and throw it against the Altar, all around. Cut the ram into pieces; wash its innards and legs, then gather the pieces and its head and burn the whole ram on the Altar. It is a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God, a pleasant fragrance, an offering by fire to God.

19-21 “Then take the second ram. Have Aaron and his sons place their hands on the ram’s head. Slaughter the ram. Take some of its blood and rub it on Aaron’s right earlobe and on the right earlobes of his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Sprinkle the rest of the blood against all sides of the Altar. Then take some of the blood that is on the Altar, mix it with some of the anointing oil, and splash it on Aaron and his clothes and on his sons and their clothes so that Aaron and his clothes and his sons and his sons’ clothes will be made holy.

22-23 “Take the fat from the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the long lobe of the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and the right thigh: this is the ordination ram. Also take one loaf of bread, an oil cake, and a wafer from the breadbasket that is in the presence of God.

24-25 “Place all of these in the open hands of Aaron and his sons who will wave them before God, a Wave-Offering. Then take them from their hands and burn them on the Altar with the Whole-Burnt-Offering—a pleasing fragrance before God, a gift to God.

26 “Now take the breast from Aaron’s ordination ram and wave it before God, a Wave-Offering. That will be your portion.

27-28 “Bless the Wave-Offering breast and the thigh that was held up. These are the parts of the ordination ram that are for Aaron and his sons. Aaron and his sons are always to get this offering from the Israelites; the Israelites are to make this offering regularly from their Peace-Offerings.

29-30 “Aaron’s sacred garments are to be handed down to his descendants so they can be anointed and ordained in them. The son who succeeds him as priest is to wear them for seven days and enter the Tent of Meeting to minister in the Holy Place.

31-34 “Take the ordination ram and boil the meat in the Holy Place. At the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons will eat the boiled ram and the bread that is in the basket. Atoned by these offerings, ordained and hallowed by them, they are the only ones who are to eat them. No outsiders are to eat them; they’re holy. Anything from the ordination ram or from the bread that is left over until morning you are to burn up. Don’t eat it; it’s holy.

35-37 “Do everything for the ordination of Aaron and his sons exactly as I’ve commanded you throughout the seven days. Offer a bull as an Absolution-Offering for atonement each day. Offer it on the Altar when you make atonement for it: Anoint and hallow it. Make atonement for the Altar and hallow it for seven days; the Altar will become soaked in holiness—anyone who so much as touches the Altar will become holy.

38-41 “This is what you are to offer on the Altar: two year-old lambs each and every day, one lamb in the morning and the second lamb at evening. With the sacrifice of the first lamb offer two quarts of fine flour with a quart of virgin olive oil, plus a quart of wine for a Drink-Offering. The sacrifice of the second lamb, the one at evening, is also to be accompanied by the same Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering of the morning sacrifice to give a pleasing fragrance, a gift to God.

42-46 “This is to be your regular, daily Whole-Burnt-Offering before God, generation after generation, sacrificed at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. That’s where I’ll meet you; that’s where I’ll speak with you; that’s where I’ll meet the Israelites, at the place made holy by my Glory. I’ll make the Tent of Meeting and the Altar holy. I’ll make Aaron and his sons holy in order to serve me as priests. I’ll move in and live with the Israelites. I’ll be their God. They’ll realize that I am their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I could live with them. I am God, your God.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Today's Scripture
1 John 5:13–15
(NIV)

Concluding Affirmations

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of Godi so that you may know that you have eternal life.j 14 This is the confidencek we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.l 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we knowm that we have what we asked of him.

Insight

In 1 John 5:14–15, we find a conditional promise for answered prayer: God hears our prayers and gives us what we ask for when “we ask anything according to his will.” To pray according to God’s will is to “ask for anything that pleases him” (nlt) or “in accord with his own plan” (J. B. Phillips). The psalmist, painfully aware that God’s promise of answered prayer is conditioned upon a right relationship with Him, cautioned, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18). The apostle James warns that God won’t give us what we pray for when we “ask with wrong motives, that [we] may spend what [we] get on [our] pleasures” (James 4:3). A right relationship with Jesus is required: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). By: K. T. Sim

Is God Listening?

If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
1 John 5:14

When I served on my church’s congregational care team, one of my duties was to pray over the requests penciled on pew cards during the services. For an aunt’s health. For a couple’s finances. For a grandson’s discovery of God. Rarely did I hear the results of these prayers. Most were anonymous, and I had no way of knowing how God had responded. I confess that at times I wondered, Was He really listening? Was anything happening as a result of my prayers?

Over our lifetimes, most of us question, “Does God hear me?” I remember my own Hannah-like pleas for a child that went unanswered for years. And there were my pleas that my father find faith, yet he died without any apparent confession.

Etched across the millennia are myriad instances of God’s ear bending to listen: to Israel’s groans under slavery (Exodus 2:24); to Moses on Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 9:19); to Joshua at Gilgal (Joshua 10:14); to Hannah’s prayers for a child (1 Samuel 1:10–17); to David crying out for deliverance from Saul (2 Samuel 22:7).

First John 5:14 crescendos, “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” The word for “hears” means to pay attention and to respond on the basis of having heard.

As we go to God today, may we have the confidence of His listening ear spanning the history of His people. He hears our pleas. By:  Elisa Morgan

Reflect & Pray

Pause to consider what you’ve most recently asked of God. What motivated you to ask? How can you know that God hears you?

Father, I come asking and trusting You to hear me because You say that You do.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 28, 2021

Justification by Faith

If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. —Romans 5:10

I am not saved by believing— I simply realize I am saved by believing. And it is not repentance that saves me— repentance is only the sign that I realize what God has done through Christ Jesus. The danger here is putting the emphasis on the effect, instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience, consecration, and dedication that make me right with God? It is never that! I am made right with God because, prior to all of that, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ instantly places me into a right relationship with God. And as a result of the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, or because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings justification with a shattering, radiant light, and I know that I am saved, even though I don’t know how it was accomplished.

The salvation that comes from God is not based on human logic, but on the sacrificial death of Jesus. We can be born again solely because of the atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creations, not through their repentance or their belief, but through the wonderful work of God in Christ Jesus which preceded all of our experience (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-19). The unconquerable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We do not have to accomplish these things ourselves— they have been accomplished through the atonement of the Cross of Christ. The supernatural becomes natural to us through the miracle of God, and there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done— “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy.  Shade of His Hand, 1223 L

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 15-17; 2 Timothy 2

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 28, 2021

Escaping the Flood, Or Not - #9079

I think I still remember one line of poetry from high school, "Water, water everywhere." Well, you know what? For lots of folks during the spring, that isn't poetry. It's their town, their neighborhood, their house. Rivers overflowing, backing up into every creek and stream. It can be a mess.

When my wife hears the word "flood," she actually feels something inside. Because the defining event for the town she grew up in was the flood that turned a quiet creek into a raging torrent - actually a deadly torrent. Those who lived it, like she did, will never forget it.

The saddest part of the story is the people who died, because well, they didn't have to. As those flash floods cascaded down from the mountains toward their town, rescuers came by a house in a boat to warn the people there and take them to safety. But they chose to ignore the warning. You know what they said? "Aw, we've been OK here for years. We're not leaving now." Their bodies were found days later, and miles away.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Escaping the Flood, Or Not."

You know, God grieves over people like that. Actually, I do, too. People who've been warned that there's danger, even death coming. People who have a rescuer at their door and think they can make it on their own and they die, when they could have lived...forever.

Our word today from the Word of God is in Deuteronomy 30:19. God pleads with us, "I have set before you life and death...choose life." Now, that "life" is a person - His Son. Here's the Bible again, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5:11). The judgment of God for us hijacking our life from Him is racing our direction. The Bible says, "God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing" (Ecclesiastes 12:14). But there's a rescuer at the door. It's Jesus.

He says, "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in" (Revelation 3:20). He can take us to safety because He did all the dying for all our sinning when He hung on that cross.

Now, maybe you've never realized that that is what Jesus did for you. Maybe you've never realized that what Jesus did was for you. Maybe you've never made your way in your heart to that cross and said those two eternity-changing words, "For me. Lord Jesus, what you were doing there was for me." Maybe you've been around this a lot and you've heard His knocking more times than you can count. You've just never opened the door. You've continued to put it off.

See, either way, whether you've never known this before or you've heard it all your life, it's important. It's eternally important that you answer the door and let Jesus save you. The Bible cries out, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart" (Hebrews 4:7).

It could be that there's a tug in your heart today. You're hearing the voice of Jesus. You're hearing the knock of the Rescuer at your door saying, "Judgment is coming. The flood is coming, but you don't have to be taken by it. I took your punishment for you." He took all the flood of all of God's judgment on Himself at that cross. And I'd say to you as you hear this that the more times you have heard His voice and done nothing, the harder your heart becomes. And that is the edge of an abyss that no one should risk.

If you're hearing His voice today, listen to what God said. Obey His command, "Do not harden your heart." Open your heart to hear Jesus today, to the Savior who died for you. What a tragedy if you would go on and pay for all eternity for what He already paid for on the cross.

Right now you could say to Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And if that's where your heart is, I'd encourage you to get to our website. I've done everything I could there to explain in plain words, with God's Word out of the Bible, how you can begin your relationship with Jesus and know you have. That website is ANewStory.com.

If you've never gotten into the boat with Jesus, God's Rescuer, I beg you to do that today. The flood is coming, and you won't make it without Him.

Mark 1:23-45, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 

Max Lucado Daily: Decide Now - October 26, 2021

Resistance matters. Long after acts of compliance are forgotten, acts of courage are pondered. In the story of Esther, Mordecai refused to bow before evil Haman. And his refusal to bow was the first link in a chain of courageous acts that led to the salvation of his people. Your resolve might be the decisive gesture that breaks the stronghold.

So decide now what you will do then. Don’t wait until the heat of the moment. A crisis is no time to prepare an escape plan. Being in the arms of your date in a motel room is not the time or place to make up your mind about morality. There is a reason the airline attendant points out the emergency exits before the plane leaves the ground. We do not think clearly during a free fall. The time to determine to resist temptation is before it strikes. May you take a stand for what is right.

Mark 1:23-45

Suddenly, while still in the meeting place, he was interrupted by a man who was deeply disturbed and yelling out, “What business do you have here with us, Jesus? Nazarene! I know what you’re up to! You’re the Holy One of God, and you’ve come to destroy us!”

25-26 Jesus shut him up: “Quiet! Get out of him!” The afflicting spirit threw the man into spasms, protesting loudly—and got out.

27-28 Everyone there was spellbound, buzzing with curiosity. “What’s going on here? A new teaching that does what it says? He shuts up defiling, demonic spirits and tells them to get lost!” News of this traveled fast and was soon all over Galilee.

29-31 Directly on leaving the meeting place, they came to Simon and Andrew’s house, accompanied by James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed, burning up with fever. They told Jesus. He went to her, took her hand, and raised her up. No sooner had the fever left than she was up fixing dinner for them.

32-34 That evening, after the sun was down, they brought sick and evil-afflicted people to him, the whole city lined up at his door! He cured their sick bodies and tormented spirits. Because the demons knew his true identity, he didn’t let them say a word.
The Leper

35-37 While it was still night, way before dawn, he got up and went out to a secluded spot and prayed. Simon and those with him went looking for him. They found him and said, “Everybody’s looking for you.”

38-39 Jesus said, “Let’s go to the rest of the villages so I can preach there also. This is why I’ve come.” He went to their meeting places all through Galilee, preaching and throwing out the demons.

40 A leper came to him, begging on his knees, “If you want to, you can cleanse me.”

41-45 Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there the leprosy was gone, his skin smooth and healthy. Jesus dismissed him with strict orders: “Say nothing to anyone. Take the offering for cleansing that Moses prescribed and present yourself to the priest. This will validate your healing to the people.” But as soon as the man was out of earshot, he told everyone he met what had happened, spreading the news all over town. So Jesus kept to out-of-the-way places, no longer able to move freely in and out of the city. But people found him, and came from all over.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Today's Scripture
Job 42:1–9
(NIV)

Then Job replied to the Lord:

2 “I know that you can do all things;d

no purpose of yours can be thwarted.e

3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’f

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me to know.g

4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.’h

5 My ears had heard of youi

but now my eyes have seen you.j

6 Therefore I despise myselfk

and repentl in dust and ashes.”m

Epilogue

7 After the Lord had said these things to Jobn, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends,o because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.p 8 So now take seven bulls and seven ramsq and go to my servant Jobr and sacrifice a burnt offerings for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayert and not deal with you according to your folly.u You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.”v 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathitew did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

Insight

After encountering God face to face, Job finds his anger and questions fading, and even describes himself repenting “in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Yet God doesn’t rebuke Job for his questions and in fact suggests that in his grief and pain he was closer to the truth than his friends. In their quickness to defend what they saw as an attack on God, Job’s friends spoke arrogantly and without compassion. They preferred to blame Job for his pain than to have their ideas about God challenged—such as God always protecting the righteous from genuine tragedy. Ironically, in their hurry to defend Him, they “had not spoken the truth about [Him],” while Job had spoken honestly (v. 7). God’s approval of Job reveals that God doesn’t want us to suppress our pain, anger, and hard questions but deeply values genuine, honest relationship with Him. By: Monica La Rose

A Purpose in Suffering

I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.
Job 42:7

“So what you’re saying is, it may not be my fault.” The woman’s words took me by surprise. Having been a guest speaker at her church, we were now discussing what I’d shared that morning. “I have a chronic illness,” she explained, “and I have prayed, fasted, confessed my sins, and done everything else I was told to do to be healed. But I’m still sick, so I thought I was to blame.”

I felt sad at the woman’s confession. Having been given a spiritual “formula” to fix her problem, she had blamed herself when the formula hadn’t worked. Even worse, this formulaic approach to suffering was disproved generations ago.

Simply put, this old formula says that if you’re suffering, you must have sinned. When Job tragically lost his livestock, children, and health, his friends used the formula on him. “Who, being innocent, has ever perished?” Eliphaz said, suspecting Job’s guilt (Job 4:7). Bildad even told Job that his children only died because they had sinned (8:4). Ignorant of the real cause of Job’s calamities (1:6–2:10), they tormented him with simplistic reasons for his pain, later receiving God’s rebuke (42:7).

Suffering is a part of living in a fallen world. Like Job, it can happen for reasons we may never know. But God has a purpose for you that goes beyond the pain you endure. Don’t get discouraged by falling for simplistic formulas. By:  Sheridan Voysey

Reflect & Pray

How else do you see the “suffering = sin” formula being used? Why do you think it’s still so prevalent?

Great Physician, give me words to heal, not hurt, in times of pain.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 27, 2021

The Method of Missions

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… —Matthew 28:19

Jesus Christ did not say, “Go and save souls” (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but He said, “Go…make disciples of all the nations….” Yet you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples returned from their first mission, they were filled with joy because even the demons were subject to them. But Jesus said, in effect, “Don’t rejoice in successful service— the great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me” (see Luke 10:17-20). The missionary’s great essential is remaining true to the call of God, and realizing that his one and only purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. Remember that there is a passion for souls that does not come from God, but from our desire to make converts to our point of view.

The challenge to the missionary does not come from the fact that people are difficult to bring to salvation, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, or that there is a barrier of callous indifference. No, the challenge comes from the perspective of the missionary’s own personal relationship with Jesus Christ— “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28). Our Lord unwaveringly asks us that question, and it confronts us in every individual situation we encounter. The one great challenge to us is— do I know my risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit? Am I wise enough in God’s sight, but foolish enough according to the wisdom of the world, to trust in what Jesus Christ has said? Or am I abandoning the great supernatural position of limitless confidence in Christ Jesus, which is really God’s only call for a missionary? If I follow any other method, I depart altogether from the methods prescribed by our Lord— “All authority has been given to Me….Go therefore…” (Matthew 28:18-19).

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them.  Biblical Psychology, 189 L

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 12-14; 2 Timothy 1

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 27, 2021

The Problem with Bible Clubs - #9078

A Bible is pretty versatile. It can be a file. Did you ever notice how much people stick in their Bible? I look at mine sometimes, and I find a number of things in there I don't want to lose. Unfortunately it does hurt the binding a little bit. Sometimes the Bible can be a record book. You see these Bibles where people put important dates, their family tree, weddings, deaths, and the autographs of people whose ministry they want to remember.

A Bible can be an antique. You can go into an antique store and drop quite a few bucks getting one of those old Bibles. And a Bible is a great gift. I've gotten several as a gift. A Bible can be your identification. I used to carry mine to school. My kids carried theirs to school; it sort of identifies you as a follower of Christ. And at some times in my life the Bible's been a textbook. Oh yeah, there are a lot of ways you can use your Bible. There's one I hope you never use.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Problem with Bible Clubs."

Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Timothy 4:2 - "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction." This is a call, I think, to Bible balance. First of all, Paul is saying, "Use God's Word to help people know what's right; that's correct. To warn them about what they're doing wrong; that's rebuke. And to encourage them in what they're doing right. Use this book boldly to change people's lives. That's certainly part of it.

Here's the other part: Do it gently, do it patiently, do it carefully. Don't use the Bible as a club! You can use it for a lot of things, but not as a club to win an argument, or to beat a person down, or shame them, or corner them. I know it's good to have some Bible clubs where kids meet to study the Bible around the school. I did that in high school. But don't use the Bible as a club. Too many people use the words of the Bible but they lose the spirit of the Bible while they're doing it.

Ephesians 4:15 is the perfect balance, "Speaking the truth in love." The problem is that often the truth bearers leave out the love, and the lovers leave out the truth. It's important to be sure that you measure everything you believe and behave by God's Word. There is no room for, "Well, in my opinion..." Or, "I don't feel like it..." Or, "It doesn't seem right to me." Or, "I just read this great Christian book and it says..." No, show me what the Bible says. God has spoken - the final word.

It's important to remind each other of what the Bible says about how we're living. But it's important to be gentle, non-condemning and patient like God has been with you. We want to make sure that when we're communicating the truth, we're also communicating, "I care about you. That's why I'm doing this. That's why I'm giving you what the Bible says, to correct, or to rebuke or encourage. I want God's best in your life. You're made for more. You're better than this." Not, "I'm sitting in judgment, and here are my verses."

Hebrews 4:12 says, "The Bible penetrates between soul and spirit." It's a sword that does that; it judges. We don't judge, God's Word judges. So let God's Word do the judging. Share it and then let it do the penetrating work God has promised.

Use God's Word to love people with the truth. Don't use it as a club.