Numbers 1 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Come and Behold Him

The world was different this week. We forgot our compulsion with winning, wooing, and warring. We looked outward toward the star of Bethlehem. More than in any other season, His name was on our lips. And the result? For a few precious hours our heavenly yearnings intermeshed and we became a chorus. “Come and behold Him” we sang, stirring even the sleepiest of shepherds and pointing them toward the Christ-child. Immanuel. He is with us. God came near.

In a few hours lights will come down and trees will be thrown out. Soon December’s generosity will become January’s payments and the magic will begin to fade. I want to savor the spirit just a bit more. To pray that those who beheld Him today will look for Him next August. How much more could He do if we thought of Him every day!

From In the Manger

Numbers 1

Census in the Wilderness of Sinai

God spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai at the Tent of Meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year after they had left Egypt. He said, “Number the congregation of the People of Israel by clans and families, writing down the names of every male. You and Aaron are to register, company by company, every man who is twenty years and older who is able to fight in the army. Pick one man from each tribe who is head of his family to help you. These are the names of the men who will help you:

from Reuben: Elizur son of Shedeur

6 from Simeon: Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai

7 from Judah: Nahshon son of Amminadab

8 from Issachar: Nethanel son of Zuar

9 from Zebulun: Eliab son of Helon

10 from the sons of Joseph,

from Ephraim: Elishama son of Ammihud

from Manasseh: Gamaliel son of Pedahzur

11 from Benjamin: Abidan son of Gideoni

12 from Dan: Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai

13 from Asher: Pagiel son of Ocran

14 from Gad: Eliasaph son of Deuel

15 from Naphtali: Ahira son of Enan.”

16 These were the men chosen from the congregation, leaders of their ancestral tribes, heads of Israel’s military divisions.

17-19 Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named to help and gathered the whole congregation together on the first day of the second month. The people registered themselves in their tribes according to their ancestral families, putting down the names of those who were twenty years old and older, just as God commanded Moses. He numbered them in the Wilderness of Sinai.

20-21 The line of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by tribes according to their ancestral families. The tribe of Reuben numbered 46,500.

22-23 The line of Simeon: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Simeon numbered 59,300.

24-25 The line of Gad: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Gad numbered 45,650.

26-27 The line of Judah: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Judah numbered 74,600.

28-29 The line of Issachar: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Issachar numbered 54,400.

30-31 The line of Zebulun: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Zebulun numbered 57,400.

32-33 The line of Joseph: From son Ephraim the men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Ephraim numbered 40,500.

34-35 And from son Manasseh the men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Manasseh numbered 32,200.

36-37 The line of Benjamin: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Benjamin numbered 35,400.

38-39 The line of Dan: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Dan numbered 62,700.

40-41 The line of Asher: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Asher numbered 41,500.

42-43 The line of Naphtali: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families. The tribe of Naphtali numbered 53,400.

44-46 These are the numbers of those registered by Moses and Aaron, registered with the help of the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each representing his ancestral family. The sum total of the People of Israel twenty years old and over who were able to fight in the army, counted by ancestral family, was 603,550.

47-51 The Levites, however, were not counted by their ancestral family along with the others. God had told Moses, “The tribe of Levi is an exception: Don’t register them. Don’t count the tribe of Levi; don’t include them in the general census of the People of Israel. Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of The Dwelling of The Testimony—over all its furnishings and everything connected with it. Their job is to carry The Dwelling and all its furnishings, maintain it, and camp around it. When it’s time to move The Dwelling, the Levites will take it down, and when it’s time to set it up, the Levites will do it. Anyone else who even goes near it will be put to death.

52-53 “The rest of the People of Israel will set up their tents in companies, every man in his own camp under its own flag. But the Levites will set up camp around The Dwelling of The Testimony so that wrath will not fall on the community of Israel. The Levites are responsible for the security of The Dwelling of The Testimony.”

54 The People of Israel did everything that God commanded Moses. They did it all.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Saturday, December 25, 2021

Today's Scripture
Philippians 2:6–11
(NIV)

Who, being in very naturea God,c

did not consider equality with Godd something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothinge

by taking the very natureb of a servant,f

being made in human likeness.g

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to deathh—

even death on a cross!i

9 Therefore God exalted himj to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,k

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,l

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,m

11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,n

to the glory of God the Father.

Insight

Along with Jesus’ ultimate and horrific sacrifice of death on the cross to pay the debt we owed for our sins (Philippians 2:8), Jesus also sacrificed by coming to earth as a man. Why was this a sacrifice? Philippians 2:7 says, “he made himself nothing.” Although still God (and possessing His attributes, such as omniscience and omnipotence), Jesus didn’t cling to the privileges of deity. Instead, He gave them up (including heavenly communion with the Father) to become a man subject to pain, suffering, temptation, thirst, hunger, and a need for sleep. And though He could have come as a king with a palace full of servants, He instead was born to a poor couple in a lowly manger. He suffered pain, betrayal, and desertion; He humbly served as a healer and teacher; and He was obedient to God—even to death—so that we could be reconciled to Him (Romans 3:23–26). By: Alyson Kieda

Christmas Child

He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Philippians 2:7

Imagine the One who made cedars spring from seeds starting life over as an embryo; the One who made the stars submitting Himself to a womb; the One who fills the heavens becoming what would be in our day a mere dot on an ultrasound. Jesus, in very nature God, making Himself nothing (Philippians 2:6–7). What an astonishing thought!

Imagine the scene as He’s born in a plain peasant village, among shepherds and angels and bright lights in the sky, with the bleating of animals His first lullabies. Watch as He grows in favor and stature: as a youngster, astounding teachers with answers to grand questions; as a young man at the Jordan, getting His Father’s approval from heaven; and in the wilderness, as He wrestles in hunger and prayer.

Watch next as He launches His world-changing mission—healing the sick, touching lepers, forgiving the impure. Watch as He kneels in a garden in anguish and as they arrest Him while His closest friends flee. Watch as He is spat on and nailed to two wooden posts, the world’s sins on His shoulders. But watch, yes watch, as the stone rolls away, an empty tomb ringing hollow, because He is alive!

Watch as He is lifted to the highest place (v. 9). Watch as His name fills heaven and earth (vv. 10–11).

This Maker of the stars who became a dot on an ultrasound. This, our Christmas Child. By:  Sheridan Voysey

Reflect & Pray

What would life and history be like had Jesus never been born? What prayer or poem can you offer God to thank Him?

Jesus, thank You for making Yourself nothing so I could be forgiven.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 25, 2021
His Birth and Our New Birth

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." —Matthew 1:23

His Birth in History. “…that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.

His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you…” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.

God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading.  My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L

Bible in a Year: Zephaniah 1-3; Revelation 16

Mark 11:19-33 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Christmas Is About Christ - December 24, 2021

My dad, a man of few words, told my brother and me, “Boys, Christmas is about Christ.” I thought about what he said. I began asking the Christmas questions; and, in one way or another, I’ve been asking them ever since. And I love the answers I have found.

Like this one: God knows what it is like to be a human. When I talk to him about deadlines or long lines or tough times, he understands. He’s been there. He’s been here. Because of Bethlehem, I have a friend in heaven.

And because of Bethlehem, I have a Savior in heaven. Christmas begins what Easter celebrates. The child in the cradle became the King on the cross. And because he did, there are no marks on my record. Just grace. His offer has no fine print. Christmas is about our precious Christ.

Mark 11:19-33

 At evening, Jesus and his disciples left the city.

20-21 In the morning, walking along the road, they saw the fig tree, shriveled to a dry stick. Peter, remembering what had happened the previous day, said to him, “Rabbi, look—the fig tree you cursed is shriveled up!”

22-25 Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, ‘Go jump in the lake’—no shuffling or hemming and hawing—and it’s as good as done. That’s why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you’ll get God’s everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it’s not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins.”
His Credentials

27-28 Then when they were back in Jerusalem once again, as they were walking through the Temple, the high priests, religion scholars, and leaders came up and demanded, “Show us your credentials. Who authorized you to speak and act like this?”

29-30 Jesus responded, “First let me ask you a question. Answer my question and then I’ll present my credentials. About the baptism of John—who authorized it: heaven or humans? Tell me.”

31-33 They were on the spot, and knew it. They pulled back into a huddle and whispered, “If we say ‘heaven,’ he’ll ask us why we didn’t believe John; if we say ‘humans,’ we’ll be up against it with the people because they all hold John up as a prophet.” They decided to concede that round to Jesus. “We don’t know,” they said.

Jesus replied, “Then I won’t answer your question either.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Friday, December 24, 2021

Today's Scripture
Isaiah 9:1–7
(NIV)

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloomw for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,x but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—

2 The people walking in darknessy

have seen a great light;z

on those living in the land of deep darknessa

a light has dawned.b

3 You have enlarged the nationc

and increased their joy;d

they rejoice before you

as people rejoice at the harvest,

as warriors rejoice

when dividing the plunder.e

4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,f

you have shatteredg

the yokeh that burdens them,

the bar across their shoulders,i

the rod of their oppressor.j

5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle

and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,k

will be fuel for the fire.

6 For to us a child is born,l

to us a son is given,m

and the governmentn will be on his shoulders.o

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor,p Mighty God,q

Everlastingr Father,s Prince of Peace.t

7 Of the greatness of his governmentu and peacev

there will be no end.w

He will reignx on David’s throne

and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

with justicey and righteousnessz

from that time on and forever.a

The zealb of the Lord Almighty

will accomplish this.

Insight

The prophet Isaiah lived during the reign of four kings of Judah—Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah—around 740 years before Jesus’ birth. According to tradition, Isaiah was sawn in half, and thus many believe Hebrews 11:37 refers to him. In Isaiah’s beautiful prophecy of the coming Messiah, this child to be born (God incarnate) would be called the “Prince of Peace” (9:6). Elsewhere, Isaiah offers a glimpse of the peace He’ll bring (11:1–9; 65:25). Jesus, the Prince of Peace, will usher in this peace with His second coming and millennial reign, and “of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end” (9:7; Revelation 11:15). By: Alyson Kieda

The Prince of Peace

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

When John’s cold turned into pneumonia, he ended up in the hospital. At the same time, his mother was being treated for cancer a few floors above him, and he felt overwhelmed with worries about her and about his own health. Then on Christmas Eve, when the radio played the carol “O Holy Night,” John was flooded with a deep sense of God’s peace. He listened to the words about it being the night of the dear Savior’s birth: “A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!” In that moment, his worries about himself and his mother vanished.

This “dear Savior” born to us, Jesus, is the “Prince of Peace,” as Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus fulfilled this prophecy when He came to earth as a baby, bringing light and salvation to “those living in the land of the shadow of death” (Matthew 4:16; see Isaiah 9:2). He embodies and gives peace to those He loves, even when they face hardship and death.

There in the hospital, John experienced the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) as he pondered the birth of Jesus. This encounter with God strengthened his faith and sense of gratitude as he lay in that sterile room away from his family at Christmas. May we too receive God’s gift of peace and hope. By:  Amy Boucher Pye

Reflect & Pray

How have you experienced God’s peace in the midst of a difficult situation? Which aspect of God in Isaiah 9:6 do you most need today? Why?

God of peace, when I’m anxious and fretting about many things, help me to turn to You and receive Your gift of peace

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 24, 2021
The Hidden Life

…your life is hidden with Christ in God. —Colossians 3:3

The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).

When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you…” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “…your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.

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: Habakkuk 1-3; Revelation 15

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 24, 2021

Homeless No More - #9120

Over the years, we've always tried to keep the real mission and meaning of Christmas in front of our children. Taking food and clothes into New York City, for example, to give to homeless people there. It put a whole new face on Christmas. Only a few miles from our home we were face-to-face with the tragedy of people without any place to call home. I remember the time when I went into the city to talk with some homeless people for my youth broadcast - to try to open my listeners eyes and hearts to a needy world. One man was living on the street, near a major bus terminal. His house was a large, tattered cardboard box. He actually allowed me to crawl inside that box with him, and it was heartbreaking that a box was home. At Christmastime - well, at any time. Wow! It's just a tragic thing to be without a home.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Homeless No More."

You know it's possible to be living in a mansion this Christmas, and still be homeless in your heart. You see, in our hearts, there's this homing instinct that keeps us looking for a love that will fill the hole in our heart, a relationship that will give us one safe and secure place in this lonely, and often disappointing world. But our lives are littered with the temporary "boxes" that we hoped would give our heart a home but never did.

But Christmas is so very much about finally finding home. It's only possible because the Son of God, in the words of the Bible, "became flesh and lived among us." (John 1:14). When He came, there was "no room" for Him to be born. In a sense, Jesus entered the little "box" we live in - for one incredible reason. He left His home to bring us home. First, to the relationship we were made for, that we've been looking for all these years. As the Bible says, you were "created by Him and for Him." We're homeless because He's our home and we're away from Him.

In reality, we're spiritually homeless by our own choice. We've chosen to live our lives our own way instead of His way. Maybe you've tried to find shelter where you could, but every other "home" has let you down - whether it's a relationship, an experience, an accomplishment - even a religion. It took the greatest act of love and sacrifice in history to make it possible for you and me to find home - including our eternal home in heaven when we die.

It's described in 1 Peter 3:18. That's our word for today from the Word of God: "Christ died for sins...the righteous (that's Jesus) for the unrighteous (that's you and me), to bring you to God." Home at last, because Jesus died to pay for every sin of our life, the sins that have cut us off from home and left us homeless in our heart. But, oh, what it cost Him. He loves you too much to lose you. He wants you to be with Him forever. So He gave everything He had to bring you home to God.

Jesus didn't leave His home just to relate to you or me, or even to reach us. He came here to rescue you. To save us all from a spiritually homeless life and a spiritually hopeless eternity. And this Christmas season, you can finally be home if you'll respond to what Jesus did to rescue you by putting all your trust in Him to be your personal Savior from your personal sin. He died for you. Isn't it time you gave Him what He died for? Isn't it time you stopped looking for home and finally found home; the home that your heart is starved for?

Reach out to Jesus. Tell Him, "Jesus, it's Your way, not my way, from now on. I'm grabbing You as my rescuer from my sin with all the faith I've got." You want that? Well, then check out our website as soon as you can today. You'll find a description of how you can be sure you belong to Jesus Christ. That website is ANewStory.com, where your new story could begin.

Now, you may have been very far from Jesus all these years - or you may have been very close, full of Christianity, but missing Christ. But at Christmastime - the time He left home to bring you home - you could finally experience the love you were made for. And finally, you'll be homeless no more.

I hope this will be for you not just a Merry Christmas, but your first Christmas with Christ in your heart.

Leviticus 26, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The Christmas Questions - December 23, 2021

I love Christmas. Let the sleigh bells ring. Let the carolers sing. The more Santas the merrier. The more trees the better. I love Christmas. The tinsel and the clatter and waking up “to see what was the matter.” Bing and his tunes. Macy’s balloons. Mistletoe kisses, Santa Claus wishes, and favorite dishes. Holiday snows, warm winter clothes, and Rudolph’s red nose. I love Christmas!

I love it because somewhere someone will ask the Christmas questions: What’s the big deal about the baby in the manger? Who was he? And what does his birth have to do with me? The questioner may be a child looking at a front-yard creche. He may be a soldier stationed far from home. She may be a young mom who, for the first time, holds a child on Christmas Eve. The Christmas season prompts questions. And may you find answers to yours.

Leviticus 26

“Don’t make idols for yourselves; don’t set up an image or a sacred pillar for yourselves, and don’t place a carved stone in your land that you can bow down to in worship. I am God, your God.

2 “Keep my Sabbaths; treat my Sanctuary with reverence. I am God.
“If You Live by My Decrees .?.?.?”

3-5 “If you live by my decrees and obediently keep my commandments, I will send the rains in their seasons, the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. You will thresh until the grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting time; you’ll have more than enough to eat and will live safe and secure in your land.

6-10 “I’ll make the country a place of peace—you’ll be able to go to sleep at night without fear; I’ll get rid of the wild beasts; I’ll eliminate war. You’ll chase out your enemies and defeat them: Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand and do away with them. I’ll give you my full attention: I’ll make sure you prosper, make sure you grow in numbers, and keep my covenant with you in good working order. You’ll still be eating from last year’s harvest when you have to clean out the barns to make room for the new crops.

11-13 “I’ll set up my residence in your neighborhood; I won’t avoid or shun you; I’ll stroll through your streets. I’ll be your God; you’ll be my people. I am God, your personal God who rescued you from Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I ripped off the harness of your slavery so that you can move about freely.
“But If You Refuse to Obey Me .?.?.?”

14-17 “But if you refuse to obey me and won’t observe my commandments, despising my decrees and holding my laws in contempt by your disobedience, making a shambles of my covenant, I’ll step in and pour on the trouble: debilitating disease, high fevers, blindness, your life leaking out bit by bit. You’ll plant seed but your enemies will eat the crops. I’ll turn my back on you and stand by while your enemies defeat you. People who hate you will govern you. You’ll run scared even when there’s no one chasing you.

18-20 “And if none of this works in getting your attention, I’ll discipline you seven times over for your sins. I’ll break your strong pride: I’ll make the skies above you like a sheet of tin and the ground under you like cast iron. No matter how hard you work, nothing will come of it: No crops out of the ground, no fruit off the trees.

21-22 “If you defy me and refuse to listen, your punishment will be seven times more than your sins: I’ll set wild animals on you; they’ll rob you of your children, kill your cattle, and decimate your numbers until you’ll think you are living in a ghost town.

23-26 “And if even this doesn’t work and you refuse my discipline and continue your defiance, then it will be my turn to defy you. I, yes I, will punish you for your sins seven times over: I’ll let war loose on you, avenging your breaking of the covenant; when you huddle in your cities for protection, I’ll send a deadly epidemic on you and you’ll be helpless before your enemies; when I cut off your bread supply, ten women will bake bread in one oven and ration it out. You’ll eat, but barely—no one will get enough.

27-35 “And if this—even this!—doesn’t work and you still won’t listen, still defy me, I’ll have had enough and in hot anger will defy you, punishing you for your sins seven times over: famine will be so severe that you’ll end up cooking and eating your sons in stews and your daughters in barbecues; I’ll smash your sex-and-religion shrines and all the paraphernalia that goes with them, and then stack your corpses and the idol-corpses in the same piles—I’ll abhor you; I’ll turn your cities into rubble; I’ll clean out your sanctuaries; I’ll hold my nose at the “pleasing aroma” of your sacrifices. I’ll turn your land into a lifeless moonscape—your enemies who come in to take over will be shocked at what they see. I’ll scatter you all over the world and keep after you with the point of my sword in your backs. There’ll be nothing left in your land, nothing going on in your cities. With you gone and dispersed in the countries of your enemies, the land, empty of you, will finally get a break and enjoy its Sabbath years. All the time it’s left there empty, the land will get rest, the Sabbaths it never got when you lived there.

36-39 “As for those among you still alive, I’ll give them over to fearful timidity—even the rustle of a leaf will throw them into a panic. They’ll run here and there, back and forth, as if running for their lives even though no one is after them, tripping and falling over one another in total confusion. You won’t stand a chance against an enemy. You’ll perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will eat you up. Any who are left will slowly rot away in the enemy lands. Rot. And all because of their sins, their sins compounded by their ancestors’ sins.
“On the Other Hand, If They Confess .?.?.?”

40-42 “On the other hand, if they confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, their treacherous betrayal, the defiance that set off my defiance that sent them off into enemy lands; if by some chance they soften their hard hearts and make amends for their sin, I’ll remember my covenant with Jacob, I’ll remember my covenant with Isaac, and, yes, I’ll remember my covenant with Abraham. And I’ll remember the land.

43-45 “The land will be empty of them and enjoy its Sabbaths while they’re gone. They’ll pay for their sins because they refused my laws and treated my decrees with contempt. But in spite of their behavior, while they are among their enemies I won’t reject or abhor or destroy them completely. I won’t break my covenant with them: I am God, their God. For their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I, with all the nations watching, brought out of Egypt in order to be their God. I am God.”

46 These are the decrees, laws, and instructions that God established between himself and the People of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Thursday, December 23, 2021

Today's Scripture
Acts 11:19–26
(NIV)

The Church in Antioch

19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killedm traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch,n spreading the word only among Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cypruso and Cyrene,p went to Antiochq and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good newsr about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them,s and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.t

22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabasu to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done,v he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.w 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spiritx and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.y

25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsusz to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciplesa were called Christians firstb at Antioch.

Insight

The disciples mentioned in Acts 11 weren’t Jewish. And it was these believers in Jesus whom the secular Greeks chose to label “Christians.” It’s possible that the term was used flippantly, to dismiss their faith as just another political party like the Augustinians (patriots of Nero) or Pompeians (loyalists to the Roman general Pompey). But the new believers embraced their title anyway.

The new name, however, also came with risks. Early believers had enjoyed religious protection under Roman law because the rulers believed they were just another sect of Judaism. But now as non-Jews joined, the secular world saw believers in Jesus as unique, which jeopardized the believers’ “safe” status. Jews were protected, Christians were not—as Paul and the apostles would later find out. The term “Christian” brought people together, but it also put a target on their collective back.

How They’ll Know

The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Acts 11:26

“The Gathering” in northern Thailand is an interdenominational, international church. On a recent Sunday, believers in Jesus from Korea, Ghana, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, the US, the Philippines, and other countries came together in a humble, thread-worn hotel conference room. They sang “In Christ Alone” and “I Am a Child of God,” lyrics that were especially poignant in that setting.

No one brings people together like Jesus does. He’s been doing it from the start. In the first century, Antioch contained eighteen different ethnic groups, each living in its own part of the city. When believers first came to Antioch, they spread the word about Jesus “only among Jews” (Acts 11:19). That wasn’t God’s plan for the church, however. Others soon came who “began to speak to Greeks [gentiles] also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus,” and “a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (vv. 20–21). People in the city noticed that Jesus was healing centuries of animosity between Jews and Greeks, and they declared this multi-ethnic church should be called “Christians,” or “little Christs” (v. 26).

It can be challenging for us to reach across ethnic, social, and economic boundaries to embrace those different from us. But this difficulty is our opportunity. If it wasn’t hard, we wouldn’t need Jesus to do it. And few would notice we’re following Him. By:  Mike Wittmer

Reflect & Pray

Why is it challenging to reach out to those who are different from you? What has Jesus provided to help you do so?

Jesus, may they know I’m a Christian by Your love.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 23, 2021
Sharing in the Atonement

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14

The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.

Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “…without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help

Bible in a Year: Nahum 1-3; Revelation 14

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 23, 2021

Already Yours - #9119

Our boys used to approach Christmas as methodically as like a military campaign. They painstakingly made their Christmas lists sometimes like October? You know, you must get the jump on anybody who wants to buy you underwear or socks. Right? So, they listed what they wanted in priority order, with what they called "the big one" right on top, circled and surrounded with big stars around it. One year, our oldest son had the year's hottest toy on top. I knew I would have to break my pattern and do this particular shopping early. So right around Thanksgiving, I bought it before it became virtually "ungettable." But my son must have reminded me about that like twenty times between then and the day he got it - that very happy Christmas Day. Of course, I just smiled.

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

Somewhere along the way, I realized I was looking at a picture of me and God as I looked at what was going on between me and my son. And I learned a powerful lesson about how prayer really works. As you're in the middle of praying for some things that you really need God to do right now, maybe the same lesson will be an encouragement to you.

Jesus laid out some of prayer's exciting dynamics in our word for today from the Word of God recorded in Mark 11:24. He said, "I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Now notice the tense of those verbs. "Believe that you have received it" - past tense - "and it will be yours" - future tense. You don't have it yet, but you proceed in faith as if it's done. That's a secret Jesus gave us as to how to get your prayers answered.

My son gave me his request. I responded almost immediately and I secured what he asked for. It was, in essence, already his. But he didn't have it yet. If I had given it to him right away, it would have ruined it; it would have spoiled Christmas. I had answered his request, but it wasn't the right time for me to give it to him.

So many times, that's what I believe might be going on when you and I pray to God for some things that really matter to us. In fact, you may have a recurring request that's at the top of your list, it's "the big one" all circled and starred. But you don't have an answer yet.

Based on what Jesus said, it could very well be that your Heavenly Father has already answered your prayer, but He hasn't given you your answer yet. It's not the right time. If you got it now, it would ruin it. And this waiting time is meant to be a trusting time, where you learn to trust your Heavenly Father in ways you've never trusted Him before. You're in "faith school," and you've still got a little more to learn. Then He's going to give you what He's already secured for you.

Your mission is to proceed in faith in the direction of what you've asked God for and believed God for, under the Holy Spirit's leading. You keep putting logs on the fire, acting as if there's going to be a fire; knowing that only God can ignite it. Live in faith as if you "have received it" and "it will be yours."

Like any loving father, God loves to give us what we ask for, unless it's something He knows will hurt us. And if He knows what you've asked for is good, He's already got it for you. You have to keep walking in that direction by faith for now, continuing to remind Him that you're trusting Him for it. You're waiting right now, even wondering why you don't have an answer yet.

But hang on! If it's in line with God's will, there's an exciting day coming when you're going to get the gift your Father has had for you since you started asking. Oh, and it will be right on time!

Mark 11:1-18 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Majesty in the Mundane - December 22, 2021

Mary is wide awake. The pain has been eclipsed by wonder. She looks into the face of the baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty. At this point in history, the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. She can’t take her eyes off of him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God. She remembers the words of the angel. “His kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:33).

He looks like anything but a king. His face is prunish and red. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. He is absolutely dependent upon Mary for his well-being. Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager, and in the presence of a carpenter.

Mark 11:1-18

Entering Jerusalem on a Colt

 When they were nearing Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany on Mount Olives, he sent off two of the disciples with instructions: “Go to the village across from you. As soon as you enter, you’ll find a colt tethered, one that has never yet been ridden. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ say, ‘The Master needs him, and will return him right away.’”

4-7 They went and found a colt tied to a door at the street corner and untied it. Some of those standing there said, “What are you doing untying that colt?” The disciples replied exactly as Jesus had instructed them, and the people let them alone. They brought the colt to Jesus, spread their coats on it, and he mounted.

8-10 The people gave him a wonderful welcome, some throwing their coats on the street, others spreading out rushes they had cut in the fields. Running ahead and following after, they were calling out,

Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!
Blessed the coming kingdom of our father David!
Hosanna in highest heaven!

11 He entered Jerusalem, then entered the Temple. He looked around, taking it all in. But by now it was late, so he went back to Bethany with the Twelve.
The Cursed Fig Tree

12-14 As they left Bethany the next day, he was hungry. Off in the distance he saw a fig tree in full leaf. He came up to it expecting to find something for breakfast, but found nothing but fig leaves. (It wasn’t yet the season for figs.) He addressed the tree: “No one is going to eat fruit from you again—ever!” And his disciples overheard him.

15-17 They arrived at Jerusalem. Immediately on entering the Temple Jesus started throwing out everyone who had set up shop there, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of the bankers and the stalls of the pigeon merchants. He didn’t let anyone even carry a basket through the Temple. And then he taught them, quoting this text:

My house was designated a house of prayer for the nations;
You’ve turned it into a hangout for thieves.

18 The high priests and religion scholars heard what was going on and plotted how they might get rid of him. They panicked, for the entire crowd was carried away by his teaching.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Today's Scripture
Colossians 2:1–5
(NIV)

I want you to know how hard I am contendingz for you and for those at Laodicea,a and for all who have not met me personally. 2 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heartb and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mysteryc of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.d 4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.e 5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spiritf and delight to see how disciplinedg you are and how firmh your faith in Christi is.

Insight

The significance of Paul’s relationship with the believers in Jesus in Colossae is noted in his word choices: “I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea” (Colossians 2:1). The words “how hard I am contending” are a translation of helíkos, “how great” (see also James 3:5), and ag?n, a place where people assembled “to celebrate solemn games.” Figuratively, ag?n referred to the contests, fights, and races that took place there. Paul used this word in 2 Timothy 4:7, where it’s translated as “fight”: “I have fought the good fight.” Though Paul was in prison (or under house arrest), that didn’t diminish his concern for the spiritual well-being of the Colossian believers. His prayers for them were constant (Colossians 1:3, 9), and his teaching was meant to help them battle the spiritual forces that lurked among them to turn them away from the supremacy of Christ (2:8–23). By: Arthur Jackson

Virtual Presence

Though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit.
Colossians 2:5

As the novel coronavirus marched across the globe, health experts advised increased physical distance between people as a means to slow the spread. Many countries asked their citizens to self-quarantine or shelter in place. Organizations sent employees home to work remotely if they could, while others suffered a financially debilitating loss of employment. Like others, I participated in church and small-group meetings through digital platforms. As a world, we practiced new forms of togetherness despite being physically disconnected.

It isn’t just the internet that lets us maintain a sense of connection. We connect to one another as members of the body of Christ through the Spirit. Paul expressed this notion centuries ago in his letter to the Colossians. Though he hadn’t personally founded their church, he cared deeply for them and their faith. And even though Paul couldn’t be with them in person, he reminded them that he was “present with [them] in spirit” (Colossians 2:5).  

We can’t always be with those we love for financial, health, or other practical reasons, and technology can help fill that gap. Yet any form of virtual connection pales in comparison to the “togetherness” we can experience as fellow members of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). In such moments, we can, like Paul, rejoice in one another’s firmness of faith and, through prayer, encourage each other to fully “know the mystery of God, namely, Christ” (Colossians 2:2). By:  Kirsten Holmberg

Reflect & Pray

How have you experienced a sense of connection with other members of the body of Christ? Who needs your prayers of encouragement today?

Jesus, thank You for being with me even when no other person can be physically present. Thank You for the connection You give me to others through the Holy Spirit.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 22, 2021

The Drawing of the Father

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him… —John 6:44

When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.

In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God.

Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

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

Bible in a Year: Micah 6-7; Revelation 13

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, December 22, 2021

What I Found Hiding in the Christmas Story - #9118

Christmas is always kind of a love fest with our family. And they're all so good at paying attention to what people want and need, and getting the great gifts. You know? So I expect good things, and I hope what I'm giving fits the description as well this Christmas. And you know what? Sometimes, occasionally I will find a little gift that I forgot to give. No, I don't save it for next Christmas. It might be "Happy New Year" or something like that.

You know what? Before this Christmas I found a gold nugget. Yeah. Well, actually it was a gift in the Bible. It was in the Luke 2 account of Jesus' birth. That's a passage of Scripture I've traveled many a time. But there was a nugget I didn't ever find there before.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What I Found Hiding in the Christmas Story."

Here's what hit me during the Christmas celebration. In those warm but familiar words, the angel said, "Behold, I bring you good news (you know) of great joy which shall be for all people." Okay, whoa, stop right there. From the first moments of Jesus' arrival on earth, heaven made clear that the good news about Jesus wasn't just for a few people in the club. It was for "all people." "Good news for all people!"

Thirty-three years later, Jesus would give His final orders before returning to heaven that He came from that first Christmas. Our word for today from the Word of God - Mark 16:15, tells us this: "Go and tell the Good News to everybody, everywhere!" It was there when He came. It was there when He left. A mandate to get the Good News about Him to "all people." The shepherds got it. The Bible says that as soon as they saw Him, "they spread the word."

Now, fast forward 2,000 years. When a church becomes a club, made for its members, focusing on the clubhouse, collecting dues from the members, it has gone deaf to Jesus' orders. When believers don't tell the people they know about the Savior they have, the Good News dies with their silence. And the lost folks they know will die without hope.

So, the whole message that came that first Christmas, the whole command of Jesus before He left, was to be aware of the people who don't have Jesus yet. How can we continue to just focus on ourselves and have meetings and activities that are just for us, sometimes in words only we understand?

How can we be content to be the people who are in essence "in a lifeboat" that have been rescued and surrounded by people who are dying without hope? How can we be content to be the people in the lifeboat who've been rescued, surrounded by people now who are dying without hope and not turn our lifeboat around and rescue them? We can't just be the folks in the lifeboat who are singing our lifeboat songs, and going to our lifeboat committee meetings, and building a bigger and better more comfortable lifeboat for the people who are already in it. We're surrounded by dying people.

Jesus said this isn't just for the people who are already in the boat. It's for the people who are dying right now who need to be saved. And people die because the people who are already saved do nothing about the people who are dying.

And so, as we look at Christmas now, let's look at the prospect also of a brand new year. Let's commit ourselves to the commission for which Jesus came. Which wasn't to start the Jesus Club, but to start a rescue mission that would spread across the planet. As we prepare for Christmas, and think about the news that was for all people, let's put our influence, our time, our prayer, our church budgets, our church meetings, our lives, our money into that for which Jesus came - the rescuing of the dying whatever it takes.

The Great Commission of Jesus came with His birth. It was His final word before He left. Whatever the years before have been, let's make this next year, as never before, the "Year of our Lord." The year each of us fulfills our destiny, fulfills our Lord's orders to make sure the News about Jesus gets to "all the people."

Leviticus 25, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The With Us God - December 21, 2021

The babe of Bethlehem. Immanuel. Remember the promise of the angel? “‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).

Immanuel. The name appears in the same Hebrew form as it did two thousand years ago. “Immanu” means “with us.” “El” refers to Elohim, or God. Not an “above us God” or a “somewhere in the neighborhood God.” He came as the “with us God.” God with us. Not “God with the rich” or “with the religious.” But God with us. All of us. Russians, Germans, Buddhists, Mormons, truck drivers and taxi drivers, librarians. God with us. Prophets weren’t enough. Apostles wouldn’t do. Angels won’t suffice. God sent more than miracles and messages. He sent himself; he sent his Son.

Leviticus 25

“The Land Will Observe a Sabbath to God”

God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter the land which I am going to give you, the land will observe a Sabbath to God. Sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and take in your harvests for six years. But the seventh year the land will take a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a Sabbath to God; you will not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Don’t reap what grows of itself; don’t harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land gets a year of complete and total rest. But you can eat from what the land volunteers during the Sabbath year—you and your men and women servants, your hired hands, and the foreigners who live in the country, and, of course, also your livestock and the wild animals in the land can eat from it. Whatever the land volunteers of itself can be eaten.
“The Fiftieth Year Is Your Jubilee Year”

8-12 “Count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years: Seven Sabbaths of years adds up to forty-nine years. Then sound loud blasts on the ram’s horn on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. Sound the ram’s horn all over the land. Sanctify the fiftieth year; make it a holy year. Proclaim freedom all over the land to everyone who lives in it—a Jubilee for you: Each person will go back to his family’s property and reunite with his extended family. The fiftieth year is your Jubilee year: Don’t sow; don’t reap what volunteers itself in the fields; don’t harvest the untended vines because it’s the Jubilee and a holy year for you. You’re permitted to eat from whatever volunteers itself in the fields.

13 “In this year of Jubilee everyone returns home to his family property.

14-17 “If you sell or buy property from one of your countrymen, don’t cheat him. Calculate the purchase price on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. He is obliged to set the sale price on the basis of the number of harvests remaining until the next Jubilee. The more years left, the more money; you can raise the price. But the fewer years left, the less money; decrease the price. What you are buying and selling in fact is the number of crops you’re going to harvest. Don’t cheat each other. Fear your God. I am God, your God.

18-22 “Keep my decrees and observe my laws and you will live secure in the land. The land will yield its fruit; you will have all you can eat and will live safe and secure. Do I hear you ask, ‘What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we don’t plant or harvest?’ I assure you, I will send such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant in the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and continue until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

23-24 “The land cannot be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are foreigners—you’re my tenants. You must provide for the right of redemption for any of the land that you own.

25-28 “If one of your brothers becomes poor and has to sell any of his land, his nearest relative is to come and buy back what his brother sold. If a man has no one to redeem it but he later prospers and earns enough for its redemption, he is to calculate the value since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own land. If he doesn’t get together enough money to repay him, what he sold remains in the possession of the buyer until the year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it will be returned and he can go back and live on his land.

29-31 “If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right to buy it back for a full year after the sale. At any time during that year he can redeem it. But if it is not redeemed before the full year has passed, it becomes the permanent possession of the buyer and his descendants. It is not returned in the Jubilee. However, houses in unwalled villages are treated the same as fields. They can be redeemed and have to be returned at the Jubilee.

32-34 “As to the Levitical cities, houses in the cities owned by the Levites are always subject to redemption. Levitical property is always redeemable if it is sold in a town that they hold and reverts to them in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the People of Israel. The pastures belonging to their cities may not be sold; they are their permanent possession.

35-38 “If one of your brothers becomes indigent and cannot support himself, help him, the same as you would a foreigner or a guest so that he can continue to live in your neighborhood. Don’t gouge him with interest charges; out of reverence for your God help your brother to continue to live with you in the neighborhood. Don’t take advantage of his plight by running up big interest charges on his loans, and don’t give him food for profit. I am your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

39-43 “If one of your brothers becomes indigent and has to sell himself to you, don’t make him work as a slave. Treat him as a hired hand or a guest among you. He will work for you until the Jubilee, after which he and his children are set free to go back to his clan and his ancestral land. Because the People of Israel are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt, they must never be sold as slaves. Don’t tyrannize them; fear your God.

44-46 “The male and female slaves which you have are to come from the surrounding nations; you are permitted to buy slaves from them. You may also buy the children of foreign workers who are living among you temporarily and from their clans which are living among you and have been born in your land. They become your property. You may will them to your children as property and make them slaves for life. But you must not tyrannize your brother Israelites.

47-53 “If a foreigner or temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your brothers becomes poor and sells himself to the foreigner who lives among you or to a member of the foreigner’s clan, he still has the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may buy him back. An uncle or cousin or any close relative of his extended family may redeem him. Or, if he gets the money together, he can redeem himself. What happens then is that he and his owner count out the time from the year he sold himself to the year of Jubilee; the buy-back price is set according to the wages of a hired hand for that number of years. If many years remain before the Jubilee, he must pay back a larger share of his purchase price, but if only a few years remain until the Jubilee, he is to calculate his redemption price accordingly. He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year. You must make sure that his owner does not tyrannize him.

54-55 “If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he goes free in the year of Jubilee, he and his children, because the People of Israel are my servants, my servants whom I brought out of Egypt. I am God, your God.

* * *

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Today's Scripture
Psalm 119:105–112
(NIV)

Your word is a lampn for my feet,

a lighto on my path.

106 I have taken an oathp and confirmed it,

that I will follow your righteous laws.q

107 I have suffered much;

preserve my life,r Lord, according to your word.

108 Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth,s

and teach me your laws.t

109 Though I constantly take my life in my hands,u

I will not forgetv your law.

110 The wicked have set a snarew for me,

but I have not strayedx from your precepts.

111 Your statutes are my heritage forever;

they are the joy of my heart.y

112 My heart is setz on keeping your decrees

to the very end.

Insight

Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem using the twenty-two successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the lines in the first stanza (vv. 1–8) begin with the first letter Aleph; verses 9–16 begin with Beth, the second letter; and so on. This pattern is used as a device for memorizing the poem.

In our reading today (vv. 105–112), every line begins with Nun. Although the psalmist is scorned and threatened for trusting in God’s precepts, he doesn’t waver but resolves to remain fully committed to knowing and obeying God’s law. In the midst of life’s difficulties and dangers, he affirms that Scripture is his security—a lamp that illuminates God’s ways and a light that provides guidance on how to respond to the dark realities of life. The writer believes that God’s statutes will renew and strengthen him (v. 107). They’re his birthright and his joy (v. 111). By: K. T. Sim

God’s Compass

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
Psalm 119:105

During World War II, Waldemar Semenov was serving as a junior engineer aboard the SS Alcoa Guide when—nearly three hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina—a German submarine surfaced and opened fire on the ship. The ship was hit, caught fire, and began to sink. Semenov and his crew lowered a lifeboat into the water and used the vessel’s compass to sail toward the shipping lanes. After three days, a patrol plane spotted their lifeboat and the USS Broome rescued the men the next day. Thanks to that compass, Semenov and twenty-six other crewmembers were saved.

The psalmist reminded God’s people that they were equipped with a compass for life—the Bible. He compared Scripture to “a lamp” (Psalm 119:105) that provides light to illuminate the path of life for those pursuing God. When the psalmist was adrift in the chaotic waters of life, he knew God could use Scripture to provide spiritual longitude and latitude and help him survive. Thus, he prayed that God would send out His light to direct him in life and bring him safely to the port of His holy presence (43:3).

As believers in Jesus, when we lose our way, God can guide us by the Holy Spirit and by the direction found in the Scriptures. May God transform our hearts and minds as we read the Bible, study it, and follow its wisdom. By:  Marvin Williams

Reflect & Pray

How have you experienced a particular verse or passage as a compass for your life in recent days? When are you tempted not to follow the directions the compass of Scripture gives?

Jesus, thank You that when I’m tempted to drift away, the wisdom of Scripture helps bring me back.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Experience or God’s Revealed Truth?

We have received…the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. —1 Corinthians 2:12

My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.

If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, “I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!”

Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R

Bible in a Year: Micah 4-5; Revelation 12

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Living Sheepishly - #9117

"It's time to get the old bathrobes out, boys. Yeah, for the church Christmas pageant." You've got to have some boys be shepherds. You know, when I think of shepherds, though, it's more than Christmas to me. It's potentially life changing. There's this picture that hangs on the wall in our living room. It's meant a lot to me in recent years. Just like an identical picture did when I was four years old. That's when my baby brother died suddenly. My grieving dad, who was not a churchgoer, decided he should take his surviving son to church somewhere.

So every Sunday he dropped me off at this one nearby church while he waited in the car, and smoked and read his Sunday paper. That church is where I first heard the name Jesus. And it's where I first saw the picture. It was my first impression of Jesus. It shows Jesus as a shepherd, leading a flock of sheep beside a stream. In His arms, there's this little lamb, looking up at the shepherd who looks lovingly at him. And I said, "That's me! I'm the lamb in Jesus' arms!" Not just then. But on the darkest day of my life.

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

Karen was the love of my life since I was 19. The only person I've done my whole adult life with. Then, on that May 16, she was suddenly gone. And I was suddenly lost. Oh, how I needed my Shepherd. And He was there. Again, I was the lamb in His arms. My one safe place. He wants to be that for you.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from what many call "The Shepherd Psalm." It contains some of the most comforting, hope-filled words in the Bible. Psalm 23:1 and then verse 4 tell us: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want ... though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..." Wait! If the surroundings are that dark and dangerous, why will I "fear no evil? Well, He says, "because you are with me."

Suddenly, on that heartbreaking day, I was in the valley of the shadow of death. And one day I'll be walking the valley of the shadow of my own death. And while that valley may be the darkest and most devastating, there are other dark valleys that shake us to our core. There's that bad news from the doctor. The marriage that was once a dream, and now it's collapsing into a nightmare. The disaster that destroyed a lifetime of treasures. Financial disaster. A job lost - or a child, a breakup, a betrayal. We all have lonely valleys to walk through.

But here's some of the best news you'll ever hear. You don't have to walk that valley alone. Ever. "I will fear no evil; for You are with me." And the Bible says of Jesus: "He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord...and they will live securely (Micah 5:4).

The vulnerable, frightened sheep is safe in the Shepherd's arms. And it just might be He's come looking for you today right where you are. Because the Bible says we're all lost sheep. It says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way" (Isaiah 53:6). Put another way, each of us has sinned, hijacked our life from the One who gave it to us. We are away from the Shepherd we were made for. So we'll always be lost in this life, and when we die, we'll be away from Him forever.

But the Shepherd loved you too much to leave you lost. He came to die on a cross, to pay for the sin you and I deserve to pay for. Then He walked out of His grave three days later - and He's waiting to walk into your life today. If you'll tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

I would love to help you get started with this life-changing relationship. Just head for our website as soon as you can. It's where a lot of people have found what they needed to begin their relationship with Jesus. It's ANewStory.com. That's the website.

Let this be the day when you make the Shepherd your shepherd, so you can say, "The Lord is my Shepherd." You'll discover what millions like me have discovered. However great the loss, Jesus is enough. And you are safe. The lamb in the loving Shepherd's arms.

Mark 10:32-52, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The King of Creation - December 20, 2021

“So this is he,” thought Gabriel. “This is God’s gift. A Savior. He shall save the people from their sins.” Gabriel’s heart was full. He turned to Mary as she cradled her child, and he spoke. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t hear him.

“Do you know who you hold, Mary? You secure the author of grace. He who is ageless is now moments old. He who strides upon the stars now has legs too weak to walk. The hands that held the oceans are now an infant’s fist. To him who has never asked a question, you will teach the name of the wind. The source of language will learn words from you. He who has never stumbled, you will carry. He who has never hungered, you will feed. The King of creation is in your arms.”

Mark 10:32-52

Back on the road, they set out for Jerusalem. Jesus had a head start on them, and they were following, puzzled and not just a little afraid. He took the Twelve and began again to go over what to expect next. “Listen to me carefully. We’re on our way up to Jerusalem. When we get there, the Son of Man will be betrayed to the religious leaders and scholars. They will sentence him to death. Then they will hand him over to the Romans, who will mock and spit on him, give him the third degree, and kill him. After three days he will rise alive.”
The Highest Places of Honor

35 James and John, Zebedee’s sons, came up to him. “Teacher, we have something we want you to do for us.”

36 “What is it? I’ll see what I can do.”

37 “Arrange it,” they said, “so that we will be awarded the highest places of honor in your glory—one of us at your right, the other at your left.”

38 Jesus said, “You have no idea what you’re asking. Are you capable of drinking the cup I drink, of being baptized in the baptism I’m about to be plunged into?”

39-40 “Sure,” they said. “Why not?”

Jesus said, “Come to think of it, you will drink the cup I drink, and be baptized in my baptism. But as to awarding places of honor, that’s not my business. There are other arrangements for that.”

41-45 When the other ten heard of this conversation, they lost their tempers with James and John. Jesus got them together to settle things down. “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around,” he said, “and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.”

* * *

46-48 They spent some time in Jericho. As Jesus was leaving town, trailed by his disciples and a parade of people, a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting alongside the road. When he heard that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus! Mercy, have mercy on me!” Many tried to hush him up, but he yelled all the louder, “Son of David! Mercy, have mercy on me!”

49-50 Jesus stopped in his tracks. “Call him over.”

They called him. “It’s your lucky day! Get up! He’s calling you to come!” Throwing off his coat, he was on his feet at once and came to Jesus.

51 Jesus said, “What can I do for you?”

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

52 “On your way,” said Jesus. “Your faith has saved and healed you.”

In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Monday, December 20, 2021

Today's Scripture
Luke 2:8–14
(NIV)

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angelv of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.w I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Saviorx has been born to you; he is the Messiah,y the Lord.z 12 This will be a signa to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peaceb to those on whom his favor rests.”

Insight

The verb translated “I bring you good news” in Luke 2:10 is euangelizo, from the same root as euangelion, the New Testament’s word for “gospel.” In its original context, it’s a word that would have carried tremendous weight, a forcefulness that we today might not notice due to overfamiliarity with it. A “gospel” proclamation was a royal announcement proclaiming that a particular king was in charge. At the time of Jesus, the Roman Empire described its own reign as good news.

In Luke 2, the heavenly choir proclaimed that a different King was really in charge and at work to restore God’s kingdom of justice and peace through the birth of Jesus Christ. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, His followers carried on the profoundly countercultural message of a different “good news” of the rule of Christ and a profoundly different kingdom than that of Rome. By: Monica La Rose

Fear Not

Do not be afraid . . . a Savior has been born to you.
Luke 2:10–11

Linus, in the Peanuts comic strip, is best known for his blue security blanket. He carries it everywhere and isn’t embarrassed at needing it for comfort. His sister Lucy especially dislikes the blanket and often tries to get rid of it. She buries it, makes it into a kite, and uses it for a science fair project. Linus too knows he should be less dependent on his blanket and lets it go from time to time, always to take it back.

In the movie A Charlie Brown Christmas, when a frustrated Charlie Brown asks, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” Linus, with his security blanket in hand, steps center stage and quotes Luke 2:8–14. In the middle of his recitation, as he says, “Fear not,” he drops his blanket—the thing he clung to when afraid.

What is it about Christmas that reminds us we don’t need to fear? The angels that appeared to the shepherds said, “Do not be afraid . . . a Savior has been born to you” (Luke 2:10–11).

Jesus is “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). We have His very presence through His Holy Spirit, the true Comforter (John 14:16), so we don’t need to fear. We can let go of our “security blankets” and trust in Him. By:  Anne Cetas

Reflect & Pray

What are you afraid of? How can the Holy Spirit’s presence help you with what troubles you?

I’m still learning, God, that You’re the greatest Comforter. Help me to let go of the things that give me false security, and please guide me to cling to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 20, 2021

The Right Kind of Help

And I, if I am lifted up…will draw all peoples to Myself. —John 12:32

Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but major surgery.

When you find yourself face to face with a person who is spiritually lost, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If that person can get to God in any other way, then the Cross of Christ is unnecessary. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner.

But our only priority must be to present Jesus Christ crucified— to lift Him up all the time (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). Every belief that is not firmly rooted in the Cross of Christ will lead people astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is trusting in the reality of redemption, his words will be compelling to others. What is extremely important is for the worker’s simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness to God depends on that, and that alone.

The calling of a New Testament worker is to expose sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior. Consequently, he cannot always be charming and friendly, but must be willing to be stern to accomplish major surgery. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful speeches. We must be willing to examine others as deeply as God has examined us. We must also be sharply intent on sensing those Scripture passages that will drive the truth home, and then not be afraid to apply them.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology, 199 R

Bible in a Year: Micah 1-3; Revelation 11

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 20, 2021

The Unstoppable Plans of God - #9116

Our ministry summer outreaches in Native America are some of our daughter's most cherished weeks of the year. But the year her first child was due in late summer, there was no way she could get the doctor's green light to travel - especially when the destination was the villages of Native Alaska. Now that's one of the amazing aspects of the first Christmas - that Mary would travel by donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in her ninth month of pregnancy. I've traveled the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem by car, not by donkey or foot as Joseph and Mary did. It's a tortuous journey through hills and mountains. It's about 90 long miles. There's no way you're going to get a loving husband to go with his very pregnant wife on a trip like that on the eve of their baby's birth, right? Wrong.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Unstoppable Plans of God."

For almost 500 years, the prophecies of God had said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Little problem: Joseph and Mary are living 90 miles away in Nazareth. There's apparently no way you'll ever get Mary to Bethlehem when the Messiah in her womb is full term. But the plan of God says Bethlehem. What God does is absolutely amazing, and a very special encouragement for you and me this Christmas.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from these familiar verses, Luke 2:1-4. "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world...and everyone went to his town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David."

Now the man seemingly making all this happen is the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus. History tells us that he murdered members of his own family, he actually was a mass murderer, and he instituted emperor worship. He was, in many ways, a monster. And here is little Joseph caught up in the great whirlpool of history. But it is Caesar Augustus who turns out to be the big player in this divine drama, and yet just a footnote to history. He thinks he's flexing his muscle with this universal census, but this most powerful man on earth is but an unsuspecting instrument in the hands of a sovereign God.

God will get His destiny couple to His destiny place, even if He has to move an empire to do it! The Christmas story is God's powerful statement that God's plans are unstoppable! Including His plans for you. Plans that He says in Jeremiah 29:11 are "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Now it may be that right now there appears to be no way things can turn out right. The money isn't there, your health isn't there, the relationship looks impossible, the job frustrations are mounting, the mountain isn't moving, and the answer isn't coming. It looks like there's no way for things to work out, not enough time for an answer to come.

But you belong to the God who, with the stroke of an evil man's pen, moved an empire to place His kids, Joseph and Mary, right where they were supposed to be. Yes, there was a difficult process, but God delivered them exactly where they were supposed to be. And believe me, God will get His plans for you accomplished if He has to move an empire to do it, or use even a godless instrument to do it.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Just getting Him there was a miracle! So would you relax in the strong arms of the God of Bethlehem. He will move whatever He has to move to finish what He has started in your life!

Leviticus 24 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: No Room in the Inn

Some of the saddest words on earth are “We don’t have room for you.” Jesus knew the sound of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said,“We don’t have room for you.” And when He hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? “We don’t have room for you in this world.”

Today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if He might enter. Every so often, He’s welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites Him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise, “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (Jn. 14:2). We make room for Him in our hearts, and Jesus makes room for us in His house!

From In the Manger

Leviticus 24

Light and Bread

God spoke to Moses: “Order the People of Israel to bring you virgin olive oil for light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. Aaron is in charge of keeping these lamps burning in front of the curtain that screens The Testimony in the Tent of Meeting from evening to morning continually before God. This is a perpetual decree down through the generations. Aaron is responsible for keeping the lamps burning continually on the Lampstand of pure gold before God.

5-9 “Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using about four quarts of flour to a loaf. Arrange them in two rows of six each on the Table of pure gold before God. Along each row spread pure incense, marking the bread as a memorial; it is a gift to God. Regularly, every Sabbath, this bread is to be set before God, a perpetual covenantal response from Israel. The bread then goes to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a Holy Place. It is their most holy share from the gifts to God. This is a perpetual decree.”

* * *

10-12 One day the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites. A fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name of God and cursed. They brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They put him in custody waiting for God’s will to be revealed to them.

13-16 Then God spoke to Moses: “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. Have all those who heard him place their hands on his head; then have the entire congregation stone him. Then tell the Israelites, Anyone who curses God will be held accountable; anyone who blasphemes the Name of God must be put to death. The entire congregation must stone him. It makes no difference whether he is a foreigner or a native, if he blasphemes the Name, he will be put to death.

17-22 “Anyone who hits and kills a fellow human must be put to death. Anyone who kills someone’s animal must make it good—a life for a life. Anyone who injures his neighbor will get back the same as he gave: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. What he did to hurt that person will be done to him. Anyone who hits and kills an animal must make it good, but whoever hits and kills a fellow human will be put to death. And no double standards: the same rule goes for foreigners and natives. I am God, your God.”

23 Moses then spoke to the People of Israel. They brought the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The People of Israel followed the orders God had given Moses.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Sunday, December 19, 2021

Today's Scripture
Genesis 30:1–2 22–24
(NIV)

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children,x she became jealous of her sister.y So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”

2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God,z who has kept you from having children?”

Then God remembered Rachel;g he listened to herh and enabled her to conceive.i 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a sonj and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”k 24 She named him Joseph,h l and said, “May the Lord add to me another son


Insight

Jacob had twelve sons from whom came twelve tribes that formed the nation of Israel—these are the simple facts. But Genesis 29 and 30 describe the complicated backstory of Israel’s genesis. Included is how scheming and striving, competition and rivalry—and prayer—factored into the making of this nation. Leah, the wife that Jacob didn’t choose (29:25), became the fruitful wife who bore him six sons (30:20)—half of the tribes! His beloved wife Rachel, though initially barren, was the mother of two of Jacob’s sons (vv. 22–23; 35:17–18). Two female servants, Bilhah (30:3–8) and Zilpah (vv. 9–13), bore him two sons each. We’re told that God heard Leah’s (v. 17) and Rachel’s (v. 22) prayers regarding childbearing. The dynamics of a very complex household included hearts crying out to God in prayer and God remembering them. By: Arthur Jackson

Remembered in Prayer

Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her.
Genesis 30:22

In the large African church, the pastor fell to his knees, praying to God. “Remember us!” As the pastor pleaded, the crowd responded, crying, “Remember us, Lord!” Watching this moment on YouTube, I was surprised that I shed tears too. The prayer was recorded months earlier. Yet it recalled childhood times when I heard our family’s pastor make the same plea to God. “Remember us, Lord!”

Hearing that prayer as a child, I’d wrongly assumed that God sometimes forgets about us. But God is all-knowing (Psalm 147:5; 1 John 3:20), He always sees us (Psalm 33:13–15), and He loves us beyond measure (Ephesians 3:17–19).

Even more, as we see in the Hebrew word zakar, meaning “remember,” when God “remembers” us, He acts for us. Zakar also means to act on a person’s behalf. Thus, when God “remembered” Noah and “all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark,” He then “sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded” (Genesis 8:1). When God “remembered” barren Rachel, He “listened to her and enabled her to conceive. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son” (30:22–23).

What a great plea of trust to ask God in prayer to remember us! He’ll decide how He answers. We can pray knowing, however, that our humble request asks God to move. By:  Patricia Raybon

Reflect & Pray

In what area of your life do you need God to remember you? How willing are you to pray with such intent and purpose?

Dear heavenly Father, grow my understanding of Your remembrance of me. Then, where I need You to act, please remember me.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, December 19, 2021
The Focus Of Our Message

I did not come to bring peace but a sword. —Matthew 10:34

Never be sympathetic with a person whose situation causes you to conclude that God is dealing harshly with him. God can be more tender than we can conceive, and every once in a while He gives us the opportunity to deal firmly with someone so that He may be viewed as the tender One. If a person cannot go to God, it is because he has something secret which he does not intend to give up— he may admit his sin, but would no more give up that thing than he could fly under his own power. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with people like that. We must reach down deep in their lives to the root of the problem, which will cause hostility and resentment toward the message. People want the blessing of God, but they can’t stand something that pierces right through to the heart of the matter.

If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as His servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing. We must drive the message home so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are, until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus for their lives. Their response may be, “We can never be that.” Then drive it home with, “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You can’t, unless you have a new Spirit” (see Luke 11:13).

There must be a sense of need created before your message is of any use. Thousands of people in this world profess to be happy without God. But if we could be truly happy and moral without Jesus, then why did He come? He came because that kind of happiness and peace is only superficial. Jesus Christ came to “bring…a sword” through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him. Approved Unto God, 10 R

Bible in a Year: Jonah 1-4; Revelation 10

Leviticus 23, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Sacred Delight

Scripture says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)

No man had more reason to be miserable than Jesus—yet no one was more joyful. He was ridiculed. Those who didn’t ridicule Him, wanted favors. He was accused of a crime he had never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. They crucified him. He left as He came—penniless.

He should have been miserable and bitter. But He wasn’t. He was joyful! He possessed a joy that possessed Him. I call it a sacred delight. Sacred because it’s not of the earth, delight because it is just that: the joy of God. And it is within reach—in the person of Jesus. He offers it to you, my friend…a sacred delight!

From In the Manger

Leviticus 23

The Feasts

 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the People of Israel, These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of God which you are to decree as sacred assemblies.

3 “Work six days. The seventh day is a Sabbath, a day of total and complete rest, a sacred assembly. Don’t do any work. Wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to God.

4 “These are the appointed feasts of God, the sacred assemblies which you are to announce at the times set for them:

5 “God’s Passover, beginning at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month.

6-8 “God’s Feast of Unraised Bread, on the fifteenth day of this same month. You are to eat unraised bread for seven days. Hold a sacred assembly on the first day; don’t do any regular work. Offer Fire-Gifts to God for seven days. On the seventh day hold a sacred assembly; don’t do any regular work.”

9-14 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the People of Israel, When you arrive at the land that I am giving you and reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain that you harvest. He will wave the sheaf before God for acceptance on your behalf; on the morning after Sabbath, the priest will wave it. On the same day that you wave the sheaf, offer a year-old male lamb without defect for a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God and with it the Grain-Offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with oil—a Fire-Gift to God, a pleasing fragrance—and also a Drink-Offering of a quart of wine. Don’t eat any bread or roasted or fresh grain until you have presented this offering to your God. This is a perpetual decree for all your generations to come, wherever you live.

15-21 “Count seven full weeks from the morning after the Sabbath when you brought the sheaf as a Wave-Offering, fifty days until the morning of the seventh Sabbath. Then present a new Grain-Offering to God. Bring from wherever you are living two loaves of bread made from four quarts of fine flour and baked with yeast as a Wave-Offering of the first ripe grain to God. In addition to the bread, offer seven yearling male lambs without defect, plus one bull and two rams. They will be a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God together with their Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings—offered as Fire-Gifts, a pleasing fragrance to God. Offer one male goat for an Absolution-Offering and two yearling lambs for a Peace-Offering. The priest will wave the two lambs before God as a Wave-Offering, together with the bread of the first ripe grain. They are sacred offerings to God for the priest. Proclaim the day as a sacred assembly. Don’t do any ordinary work. It is a perpetual decree wherever you live down through your generations.

22 “When you reap the harvest of your land, don’t reap the corners of your field or gather the gleanings. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners. I am God, your God.”

23-25 God said to Moses: “Tell the People of Israel, On the first day of the seventh month, set aside a day of rest, a sacred assembly—mark it with loud blasts on the ram’s horn. Don’t do any ordinary work. Offer a Fire-Gift to God.”

26-32 God said to Moses: “The tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly, fast, and offer a Fire-Gift to God. Don’t work on that day because it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before your God. Anyone who doesn’t fast on that day must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who works on that day. Don’t do any work that day—none. This is a perpetual decree for all the generations to come, wherever you happen to be living. It is a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a fast day. Observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening.”

33-36 God said to Moses: “Tell the People of Israel, God’s Feast of Booths begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. It lasts seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; don’t do any ordinary work. Offer Fire-Gifts to God for seven days. On the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and offer a gift to God. It is a solemn convocation. Don’t do any ordinary work.

37-38 “These are the appointed feasts of God which you will decree as sacred assemblies for presenting Fire-Gifts to God: the Whole-Burnt-Offerings, Grain-Offerings, sacrifices, and Drink-Offerings assigned to each day. These are in addition to offerings for God’s Sabbaths and also in addition to other gifts connected with whatever you have vowed and all the Freewill-Offerings you give to God.

39-43 “So, summing up: On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have brought your crops in from your fields, celebrate the Feast of God for seven days. The first day is a complete rest and the eighth day is a complete rest. On the first day, pick the best fruit from the best trees; take fronds of palm trees and branches of leafy trees and from willows by the brook and celebrate in the presence of your God for seven days—yes, for seven full days celebrate it as a festival to God. Every year from now on, celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days—every son and daughter of Israel is to move into booths so that your descendants will know that I made the People of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am God, your God.”

44 Moses posted the calendar for the annual appointed feasts of God which Israel was to celebrate.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Saturday, December 18, 2021

Today's Scripture
2 Timothy 4:1–8
(NIV)

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead,r and in view of his appearings and his kingdom, I give you this charge:t 2 Preachu the word;v be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebukew and encouragex—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.y Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.z 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.a 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship,b do the work of an evangelist,c discharge all the duties of your ministry.

6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering,d and the time for my departure is near.e 7 I have fought the good fight,f I have finished the race,g I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for meh the crown of righteousness,i which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that dayj—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Insight

In 2 Timothy 3, Paul warned Timothy about people who “[have] a form of godliness” but completely oppose God’s truth (v. 5). At the conclusion of chapter 3, he pointed to the crucial value of Timothy’s faith in Christ and then wrote: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (vv. 16–17). This was essential for Timothy to understand in his role as a servant of God. Timothy was to “correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (4:2), countering the false teachers who say what “itching ears want to hear” (v. 3). In other words, Timothy was never to seek the approval of others by telling them what they wanted to hear. He must share only God’s truth—the truth the Scriptures clearly teach. By: Tim Gustafson

Well Done!

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7

The school where my son Brian coaches football lost the state title game in a hard-fought battle. Their opponent was undefeated over the past two years. I sent Brian a text to commiserate with him and received a terse reply: “Kids battled!”

No coach shamed the players after the game. No one shouted at them for their mishaps or bad decisions along the way. No, the coaches showered the young players with praise for what could be praised.

Along the same vein, it’s good to know that believers in Jesus will not hear harsh words of condemnation from Him. When Christ comes and we stand before Him, He won’t shame us. He’ll see what we’ve done as we’ve followed Him (2 Corinthians 5:10; Ephesians 6:8). I think He’ll say something like, “You battled! Well done!” The apostle Paul testified that he had “fought the good fight” and looked forward to being welcomed by God (2 Timothy 4:7–8).

Life is a relentless struggle with a fierce, unyielding foe devoted to our destruction. He will resist every effort we make to be like Jesus and to love others. There’ll be a few good wins and some heartbreaking losses—God knows—but there will be no eternal condemnation for those in Jesus (Romans 8:1). If we stand before Him in the merits of God’s Son, each one will “receive [his] praise” from God (1 Corinthians 4:5). By:  David H. Roper

Reflect & Pray

Does the thought of standing before God fill you with dread or delight? What would make the difference?

Thank You, God, for the promise that because I have Jesus as my Savior, I’ll never be condemned.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 18, 2021

Test of Faithfulness

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God… —Romans 8:28

It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith— the Lord Jesus Christ. God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He had ordained the situation. We never saw what He was trying to accomplish, and that exact event will never be repeated in our life. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes. If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, He will change them for the better very quickly if He so chooses.

Being faithful to Jesus Christ is the most difficult thing we try to do today. We will be faithful to our work, to serving others, or to anything else; just don’t ask us to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Many Christians become very impatient when we talk about faithfulness to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more deliberately by Christian workers than by the world. We treat God as if He were a machine designed only to bless us, and we think of Jesus as just another one of the workers.

The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed

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Bible in a Year: Obadiah; Revelation 9