Psalm 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Love Covers a Multitude of Sins
If people love you at 6:00 a.m. one thing is sure. They love you! No makeup. No power tie. No status jewelry. No layers of images. Just unkempt honesty. Just you. "Love," wrote one forgiven soul, "covers over a multitude of sins."
Sounds like God's love. Hebrews 10:14 says, "He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." Note that the word is not improving. God doesn't improve; he perfects. He doesn't enhance; he completes. When it comes to our position before God, we are perfect. When he sees each of us, he sees one who has been made perfect through the One who is perfect-Jesus Christ. He sees perfection. Not perfection earned by us, mind you, but perfection paid by him.
Scripture says, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 NCV).
From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 3
God! Look! Enemies past counting!
Enemies sprouting like mushrooms,
Mobs of them all around me, roaring their mockery:
“Hah! No help for him from God!”
3-4 But you, God, shield me on all sides;
You ground my feet, you lift my head high;
With all my might I shout up to God,
His answers thunder from the holy mountain.
5-6 I stretch myself out. I sleep.
Then I’m up again—rested, tall and steady,
Fearless before the enemy mobs
Coming at me from all sides.
7 Up, God! My God, help me!
Slap their faces,
First this cheek, then the other,
Your fist hard in their teeth!
8 Real help comes from God.
Your blessing clothes your people!

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Today's Scripture
James 4:13–17
Nothing but a Wisp of Fog
13–15  And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”
16–17  As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.
Insight
Is it wrong to plan? Certainly not. Those who come away from James 4:13–17 thinking that good planning is a bad thing miss the point of the passage and ignore Scripture’s teaching elsewhere. Students of life know the value of having a plan. So did the writer in Proverbs 21:5: “Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind” (the message). A good plan is a good thing. What James critiques and condemns, however, is the kind of planning that ignores life’s uncertainty and brevity (James 4:14) and God as the giver of life (v. 15). The book of James has been called the “Proverbs of the New Testament.” James 4:13–17 echoes Proverbs 27:1: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” and encourages us to “trust in the Lord with all [our] heart and lean not on [our] own understanding” (3:5).
By: Arthur Jackson
Plans and Providence
If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.

James 4:15
In 2000, an upstart company operating on a movie-rental-by-mail system offered to sell their company for $50 million to Blockbuster, the home movies and video game rentals king at that time. Netflix had roughly 300,000 subscribers, while Blockbuster had millions and millions of them. Blockbuster passed on the opportunity to purchase their little competitor. The result? Today Netflix has more than 180 million subscribers and is worth nearly $200 billion. As for Blockbuster, well . . . it went bust. None of us can predict the future.
We’re tempted to believe that we’re in control of our lives and that our plans for the future will succeed. But James says, “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (4:14). Life is brief, quick, and more fragile than we often realize. Planning is necessary, but the sin of presumption is in the assumption that we’re in control. That’s why James warns us not to “boast in [our] arrogant schemes,” for “all such boasting is evil” (v. 16).
The way to avoid this sinful practice is through grateful participation with God. Gratitude reminds us that He’s the source of every “good and perfect gift” (1:17). Then when we come to God, we ask Him not to simply bless our present and future plans but to help us join Him in what He’s doing. This is what it means to pray, “If it is the Lord’s will” (4:15).
Reflect & Pray
How are you tempted to be in control of your life? What will it mean for you to surrender to God and participate with Him?
Dear Jesus, I relinquish my plans to You. Help me to put my trust in You, because You never fail. 

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Living Your Theology
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you… —John 12:35
Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.
Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “…unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but One who stands in the thick of the whole thing with man.  Disciples Indeed, 388 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 120-122; 1 Corinthians 9

2 Samuel 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A PRAYER OF REPENTANCE - August 26, 2022
I’m wondering if you’d be willing to join me in a prayer of repentance—repentance from arrogance. What have we done that God didn’t first do? What do we have that God didn’t first give us? Have any of us ever built anything that God could not destroy? Have we ever created any monument that the master of the stars can’t reduce to dust?
God asked this question through the prophet Isaiah. “‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing” (Isaiah 40:25-26).
Let’s humble ourselves before the hand of God. The Bible reminds us that those who walk in pride, God is able to humble. And we don’t want him to humble us, do we?

2 Samuel 15
As time went on, Absalom took to riding in a horse-drawn chariot, with fifty men running in front of him. Early each morning he would take up his post beside the road at the city gate. When anyone showed up with a case to bring to the king for a decision, Absalom would call him over and say, “Where do you hail from?”
And the answer would come, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.”
3-6 Then Absalom would say, “Look, you’ve got a strong case; but the king isn’t going to listen to you.” Then he’d say, “Why doesn’t someone make me a judge for this country? Anybody with a case could bring it to me and I’d settle things fair and square.” Whenever someone would treat him with special honor, he’d shrug it off and treat him like an equal, making him feel important. Absalom did this to everyone who came to do business with the king and stole the hearts of everyone in Israel.
7-8 After four years of this, Absalom spoke to the king, “Let me go to Hebron to pay a vow that I made to God. Your servant made a vow when I was living in Geshur in Aram saying, ‘If God will bring me back to Jerusalem, I’ll serve him with my life.’”
9 The king said, “Go with my blessing.” And he got up and set off for Hebron.
10-12 Then Absalom sent undercover agents to all the tribes of Israel with the message, “When you hear the blast of the ram’s horn trumpet, that’s your signal: Shout, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’” Two hundred men went with Absalom from Jerusalem. But they had been called together knowing nothing of the plot and made the trip innocently. While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he managed also to involve Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s advisor, calling him away from his hometown of Giloh. The conspiracy grew powerful and Absalom’s supporters multiplied.
13 Someone came to David with the report, “The whole country has taken up with Absalom!”
14 “Up and out of here!” called David to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem. “We’ve got to run for our lives or none of us will escape Absalom! Hurry, he’s about to pull the city down around our ears and slaughter us all!”
15 The king’s servants said, “Whatever our master, the king, says, we’ll do; we’re with you all the way!”
16-18 So the king and his entire household escaped on foot. The king left ten concubines behind to tend to the palace. And so they left, step by step by step, and then paused at the last house as the whole army passed by him—all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and the six hundred Gittites who had marched with him from Gath, went past.
19-20 The king called out to Ittai the Gittite, “What are you doing here? Go back with King Absalom. You’re a stranger here and freshly uprooted from your own country. You arrived only yesterday, and am I going to let you take your chances with us as I live on the road like a gypsy? Go back, and take your family with you. And God’s grace and truth go with you!”
21 But Ittai answered, “As God lives and my master the king lives, where my master is, that’s where I’ll be—whether it means life or death.”
22 “All right,” said David, “go ahead.” And they went on, Ittai the Gittite with all his men and all the children he had with him.
23-24 The whole country was weeping in loud lament as all the people passed by. As the king crossed the Brook Kidron, the army headed for the road to the wilderness. Zadok was also there, the Levites with him, carrying God’s Chest of the Covenant. They set the Chest of God down, Abiathar standing by, until all the people had evacuated the city.
25-26 Then the king ordered Zadok, “Take the Chest back to the city. If I get back in God’s good graces, he’ll bring me back and show me where the Chest has been set down. But if he says, ‘I’m not pleased with you’—well, he can then do with me whatever he pleases.”
27-30 The king directed Zadok the priest, “Here’s the plan: Return to the city peacefully, with Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son, with you. I’ll wait at a spot in the wilderness across the river, until I get word from you telling us what’s up.” So Zadok and Abiathar took the Chest of God back to Jerusalem and placed it there, while David went up the Mount of Olives weeping, head covered but barefooted, and the whole army was with him, heads covered and weeping as they ascended.
31 David was told, “Ahithophel has joined the conspirators with Absalom.” He prayed, “Oh, God—turn Ahithophel’s counsel to foolishness.”
32-36 As David approached the top of the hill where God was worshiped, Hushai the Arkite, clothes ripped to shreds and dirt on his head, was there waiting for him. David said, “If you come with me, you’ll be just one more piece of luggage. Go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I’m ready to be your servant, O King; I used to be your father’s servant, now I’m your servant.’ Do that and you’ll be able to confuse Ahithophel’s counsel for me. The priests Zadok and Abiathar are already there; whatever information you pick up in the palace, tell them. Their two sons—Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan—are there with them—anything you pick up can be sent to me by them.”
37 Hushai, David’s friend, arrived at the same time Absalom was entering Jerusalem.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 26, 2022
Today's Scripture
Philippians 4:4–7
  Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6–7  Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Insight
At this point in his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul begins a somewhat lengthy conclusion. Despite the admonishment he’s just given to the two quarreling church members, Euodia and Syntyche (Philippians 4:2), his tone remains warm and relational. The crux of the passage is this: “The Lord is near” (v. 5). The reason we can rejoice in any situation (v. 4), the reason we can “let [our] gentleness be evident to all,” the reason we can obey Paul’s exhortation not to “be anxious about anything” (v. 6) is because Jesus is near. Scholars debate whether this means His return is near or if Paul means He’s close to us. Either interpretation should have a similar effect for our understanding. He’s with us via the Holy Spirit, and He promises to return for us (John 14:3).
By: Tim Gustafson
Just Ask!
You do not have because you do not ask God.

James 4:2
The gleeful shouts arising from our basement came from my wife, Shirley. For hours she’d wrestled with a newsletter project, and she was ready to be done with it. In her anxiety and uncertainty about how to move forward, she prayed for God’s help. She also reached out to Facebook friends and soon the project was completed—a team effort.
While a newsletter project is a little thing in life, small (and not so small) things can bring about worry or anxiousness. Perhaps you’re a parent walking through the stages of childrearing for the first time; a student facing newfound academic challenges; a person grieving the loss of a loved one; or someone experiencing a home, work, or ministry challenge. Sometimes we’re needlessly on edge because we don’t ask God for help (James 4:2).
Paul pointed the followers of Jesus in Philippi and us to our first line of defense in times of need: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). When life gets complicated, we need reminders like the one from the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”:
Oh what peace we often forfeit,
oh what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry,
everything to God in prayer.
And perhaps in our asking God for help, He’ll lead us to ask people who can assist us.
By:  Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
What situations challenge you that you can bring to God in prayer? Why do you hesitate to ask Him or others for help?
Dear God, forgive me for not bringing my burdens to You in prayer. Help me to reach out to others and ask for help too.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 26, 2022

Are You Ever Troubled?
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you… —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “…My peace I give to you…”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:27).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 119:89-176; 1 Corinthians 8

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 26, 2022
IT STARTS AT A CROSS - #9295
I'm used to turning on the news and hearing about bullets or ballots or budgets. But the Bible? On newscast after newscast a while back, the Bible was one of the lead stories. I mean, actually "The Bible." It was the ten-hour History Channel mini-series. It stunned everybody with blockbuster ratings, especially among young viewers. There were epic moments from Noah's Ark to the parting of the Red Sea, and of course David decking Goliath.
But the last night is what so many people were talking about; particularly the one scene that literally they said "lit up" social networks like Twitter - the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. All over the cyber-universe, people said they were in tears watching Jesus die. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was like in so many conversations.
For those of us who belong to this Jesus, there's a message in all of this that could change eternities. That message could be summed up in four little words, "It's all about Jesus."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It Starts at a Cross."
This heartfelt response to the portrayal of Jesus on the cross, I think it's a wakeup call - for those who don't know Him and for those who do. For those who don't, the choice that actually determines your destiny is what you do with what Jesus did on that cross for you. For those who do know Him, that cross and that miraculous resurrection is our message - unencumbered by anything else.
The famous preacher, Charles Spurgeon, called the cross of Jesus "that magnificent magnet." It really is. Over and over, I've seen that when you can get someone to that cross, their hearts are stolen away. So why do we Christians spend so much time on detours that distract from that destination? Like expounding on what we're against, or promoting our church, or arguing about politics or religion.
What that series "The Bible" did in its final episode was strip away 2,000 years of Christianity and bring us back to the heartbeat of God; His Son dying on a cross for us. In our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul said, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
Before there were churches, before there were "Christians," before there were creeds, there was a cross. That's the Good News that we have for our friend, our neighbor, our family member, our coworker. Not a church to go to. Not a religion to join. Not some belief to sign up for. Not an indictment of how they're living.
But a Savior, hanging on that cross, paying the awful price for all the junk of our life. It's not just how Jesus died that's so heart-rending. It's the reason He died. The Bible says, "He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped and we were healed! The Lord laid on Him the guilt and sins of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6 - NLB).
It's not about Christians. It's not about Christianity. It's about the living Christ who loved you enough to die for you; a love that would pay any price not to lose you. That's the Good News we're commanded to share. No more. No less.
Jesus' repeated invitation was simply, "Follow Me." Not My followers, not My religion, not My rules. Just "follow Me." Jesus made it all about Jesus. We should, too. Bring people up Skull Hill with you. Stand them at the foot of that old rugged cross and whisper two words, "For you. This was for you."
Maybe you've never done that for yourself. You've never made personal what Jesus did on that cross for you. Would you let this be the day you get it done for yourself? It's at that moment when you make personal what Jesus did on the cross; that's what changes everything. It changes the rest of your life. It changes your eternity!
This is the time you should go to our website. If you're not sure you belong to Him, it will help you be sure - ANewStory.com. You can get this settled today, my friend, once and for all.

John 4:1-26 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: STAND ON THE OFFER OF GRACE - August 25, 2022
“Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them” (Proverbs 26:12 NIV).
God hates pride. How do we explain God’s abhorrence of the haughty heart? Simple. God resists the proud because the proud resist God. Arrogance will not admit to sin. The heart of pride never confesses, never repents, never asks for forgiveness. Pride is the hidden reef that shipwrecks the soul.
Pride comes at a high price. Don’t pay it. Choose instead to stand on the offer of grace. You see, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5 NKJV). Isn’t it easy to see why? Humility is happy to do what pride will not. The humble heart is quick to acknowledge the need for God, eager to confess sin, willing to kneel before heaven’s mighty hand. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!

John 4:1-26
The Woman at the Well
 Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.
4-6 To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.
7-8 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)
9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”
11-12 The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”
13-14 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”
15 The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”
16 He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”
17-18 “I have no husband,” she said.
“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”
19-20 “Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”
21-23 “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.
23-24 “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
25 The woman said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”
26 “I am he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Today's Scripture
Psalm 121
A Song of Ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From whence does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved,
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade
on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and for evermore.
Insight
As one of the Songs of Ascents (see the superscription), Psalm 121 was designated as a song of pilgrimage as the people traveled to Jerusalem for the three high feasts each year. Though there were more feasts, these three had been set aside for annual pilgrimage. Notice Deuteronomy 16:16 in Moses’ final instructions to Israel prior to his death: “Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.” The Feast of Unleavened Bread was also known as Passover (Pesach) while the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) was also known as Firstfruits or Pentecost. Both of these were spring feasts, while the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) was a fall feast that remembered the people’s time dwelling in tents in the wilderness.
By: Bill Crowder
When You Need Help
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:2
It was a Monday morning, but my friend Chia-ming wasn’t in the office. He was at home, cleaning the bathroom. A month unemployed, he thought, and no job leads. His firm had shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic and worries about the future filled Chia-ming with fear. I need to support my family, he thought. Where can I go for help?
In Psalm 121:1, the pilgrims to Jerusalem asked a similar question about where to find help. The journey to the Holy City on Mount Zion was long and potentially dangerous, with travelers enduring an arduous climb. The challenges they faced may seem like the difficult journeys we face in life today—trudging the path of illness, relationship problems, bereavement, stress at work or, as in the case of Chia-ming, financial difficulty and unemployment.
But we can take heart in the truth that the Maker of heaven and earth Himself helps us (v. 2). He watches over our lives (vv. 3, 5, 7–8) and He knows what we need. Shamar, the Hebrew word for “watches over,” means “to guard.” The Creator of the universe is our guardian. We’re in His safekeeping. “God took care of me and my family,” Chia-ming shared recently. “And at the right time, He provided a teaching job.”
As we trust and obey God, we can look ahead with hope, knowing we’re within the protective boundaries of His wisdom and love.
By:  Karen Huang
Reflect & Pray
What kind of help do you need from God today? How does knowing He’s the Maker of heaven and earth encourage you?
Father, thank You for being my source of help on my life’s journey.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, August 25, 2022
I have called you friends… —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if…!” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God….” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends….” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand.  Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 119:1-88; 1 Corinthians 7:20-40

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, August 25, 2022

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT A COLD SEASON - #9294
It was one of those winters when the bottom dropped out of the temperature in our area. I mean, folks there just aren't used to visits from North Pole weather. For a while, our favorite song was, "Freeze a Jolly Good Fellow." I was discussing this extended freeze with a friend who has lived in the area most of her life, and she actually helped me have a very positive outlook on the cold weather. She just said, "Well, just think - it's killing a lot of bugs!" Okay! Well, with all the ticks and the other pests we had the previous summer, I guess that was good news. So the next time I walked outside and felt a blast of that chilling cold, I said to myself, "Well, I'm turning blue, but the bugs are dying!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Good News About a Cold Season."
Most of us have lived long enough to see it happen - something good coming out of something that's difficult and unpleasant. If you're in a season of your life that's pretty cold right now, that may be an encouragement that would be good to remember. As you're feeling the chill of the moment, God's doing something that you're going to benefit from later on; something that could not happen without this time of bitter cold.
Just ask Joseph. The Book of Genesis tells us about a very long winter season in the life of this Old Testament hero. His brothers hated him because he was his father's favorite. They threw him in a pit and nearly let him die there. At the last minute, they changed their minds, lightened up a little, and settled for selling him into Egyptian slavery. Joseph got a great job in the house of a powerful man, and then lost it when he refused the advances of the boss's wife and she falsely accused him of assaulting her. Then, two long years in the king's prison as a result.
Ultimately, Joseph came to the attention of Pharaoh who eventually promoted him to second in command in the mighty Egyptian empire. That's when a famine drove Joseph's brothers to Egypt in search of food - food only the brother they had betrayed could give them. When they finally realize who he is and then experience his forgiveness and his mercy that they do not deserve, Joseph speaks these words in Genesis 50:20. It's our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
From the pit to the prison, Joseph was sustained by one thing he knew had not changed - God was working a bigger plan. If you belong to Jesus, then Joseph's God is your God, too. And He is a God who uses even the wickedness of man to accomplish great things. For Joseph, vengeful brothers, false accusations, terrible injustices. They became the tools that God used to take him to places and positions he never could have gone otherwise.
If it's cold right now, if it's dark right now, don't let discouragement win. Don't let bitterness or resentment or resignation ruin the greater plan God is working on. The question to ask in times like these isn't, "Why, God?" You may not have that answer till you get to heaven. The better question is, "How can You use this, God?" He really does, as the verse says, "work all things together for the good of those who love God" (Romans 8:28).
During this winter in your life, He wants to build in you qualities that will lead to future greatness. He wants to give you a closeness to Him that you've never had before and would never get any other way. And then, He wants to use this season to position you to make a greater difference with the rest of your life than you ever imagined.

2 Samuel 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE PROMISE OF PRAYER - August 24, 2022
You may find yourself in an impossible situation. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered. You want to quit. Could I implore you to memorize this promise and then ask God to bring it to mind? Write it where you’ll find it. Tattoo it, if not on your skin at least on your heart: “When a believing person prays, great things happen” (James 5:16 NCV).
If you’ve taken on the name of Christ, you have clout with the most powerful being in the universe. When you speak, God listens. Jesus said, “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19 MSG).
Prayer is just the first step. God has power you’ve never seen, strength you’ve never known, and he delights in answering prayer. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!

2 Samuel 14
Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king, deep down, still cared for Absalom. So he sent to Tekoa for a wise woman who lived there and instructed her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in black and don’t comb your hair, so you’ll look like you’ve been grieving over a dead loved one for a long time. Then go to the king and tell him this .?.?. ” Joab then told her exactly what to say.
4 The woman of Tekoa went to the king, bowed deeply before him in homage, and said, “O King, help!”
5-7 He said, “How can I help?”
“I’m a widow,” she said. “My husband is dead. I had two sons. The two of them got into a fight out in the field and there was no one around to step between them. The one struck the other and killed him. Then the whole family ganged up against me and demanded, ‘Hand over this murderer so we can kill him for the life of the brother he murdered!’ They want to wipe out the heir and snuff out the one spark of life left to me. And then there would be nothing left of my husband—not so much as a name—on the face of the earth.
15-17 “So now I’ve dared come to the king, my master, about all this. They’re making my life miserable, and I’m afraid. I said to myself, ‘I’ll go to the king. Maybe he’ll do something! When the king hears what’s going on, he’ll step in and rescue me from the abuse of the man who would get rid of me and my son and God’s inheritance—the works!’ As your handmaid, I decided ahead of time, ‘The word of my master, the king, will be the last word in this, for my master is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil.’ God be with you!”
9 “I’ll take all responsibility for what happens,” the woman of Tekoa said. “I don’t want to compromise the king and his reputation.”
10 “Bring the man who has been harassing you,” the king continued. “I’ll see to it that he doesn’t bother you anymore.”
11 “Let the king invoke the name of God,” said the woman, “so this self-styled vigilante won’t ruin everything, to say nothing of killing my son.”
“As surely as God lives,” he said, “not so much as a hair of your son’s head will be lost.”
12 Then she asked, “May I say one more thing to my master, the king?”
He said, “Go ahead.”
13-14 “Why, then,” the woman said, “have you done this very thing against God’s people? In his verdict, the king convicts himself by not bringing home his exiled son. We all die sometime. Water spilled on the ground can’t be gathered up again. But God does not take away life. He works out ways to get the exile back.”
18 The king then said, “I’m going to ask you something. Answer me truthfully.”
“Certainly,” she said. “Let my master, the king, speak.”
19-20 The king said, “Is the hand of Joab mixed up in this?”
“On your life, my master king, a body can’t veer an inch right or left and get by with it in the royal presence! Yes, it was your servant Joab who put me up to this, and put these very words in my mouth. It was because he wanted to turn things around that your servant Joab did this. But my master is as wise as God’s angels in knowing how to handle things on this earth.”
21 The king spoke to Joab. “All right, I’ll do it. Go and bring the young man Absalom back.”
22 Joab bowed deeply in reverence and blessed the king. “I’m reassured to know that I’m still in your good graces and have your confidence, since the king is taking the counsel of his servant.”
23-24 Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. The king said, “He may return to his house, but he is not to see me face-to-face.” So Absalom returned home, but was not permitted to see the king.
25-27 This Absalom! There wasn’t a man in all Israel talked about so much for his handsome good looks—and not a blemish on him from head to toe! When he cut his hair—he always cut it short in the spring because it had grown so heavy—the weight of the hair from his head was over two pounds! Three sons were born to Absalom, and one daughter. Her name was Tamar—and she was a beauty.
28-31 Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years, and not once did he see the king face-to-face. He sent for Joab to get him in to see the king, but Joab still wouldn’t budge. He tried a second time and Joab still wouldn’t. So he told his servants, “Listen. Joab’s field adjoins mine, and he has a crop of barley in it. Go set fire to it.” So Absalom’s servants set fire to the field. That got him moving—Joab came to Absalom at home and said, “Why did your servants set my field on fire?”
32 Absalom answered him, “Listen, I sent for you saying, ‘Come, and soon. I want to send you to the king to ask, “What’s the point of my coming back from Geshur? I’d be better off still there!” Let me see the king face-to-face. If he finds me guilty, then he can put me to death.’”
33 Joab went to the king and told him what was going on. Absalom was then summoned—he came and bowed deeply in reverence before him. And the king kissed Absalom.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Today's Scripture
2 Corinthians 5:6–10
  That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.
9–10  But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what’s coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.
Insight
Paul wrote this rich passage in the context of pondering death. Yet he put an unusual twist on it. Not only was he longing for death, but he also viewed it as being “swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4)—inverting our typical view of it. The chapter begins with Paul contrasting our “earthly tent” with a future “building from God, an eternal house in heaven” (v. 1). The apostle’s certainty of this eternal future prompted him to say he “would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (v. 8). For now, “we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling” (v. 2). Paul had great confidence in this because God has “given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (v. 5). This is the great message of the gospel. For believers in Christ, death is obliterated by eternal life.
By: Tim Gustafson
Landing Spot
We live by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7
The impala, a member of the antelope family, is able to jump up to ten feet high and thirty feet in length. It’s an incredible feat, and no doubt essential to its survival in the African wild. Yet, at many impala enclosures found in zoos, you’ll find that the animals are kept in place by a wall that’s merely three feet tall. How can such a low wall contain these athletic animals? It works because impalas will never jump unless they can see where they’ll land. The wall keeps the impalas inside the enclosure because they can’t see what’s on the other side.
As humans, we’re not all that different. We want to know the outcome of a situation before we move forward. The life of faith, however, rarely works that way. Writing to the church at Corinth, Paul reminded them, “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). But that doesn’t mean we’ll know His outcomes beforehand. Living by faith means trusting His good purposes even when those purposes are shrouded in mystery.
In the midst of life’s uncertainties, we can trust His unfailing love. No matter what life throws at us, “we make it our goal to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). 
By:  Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
In what areas are you struggling to see the next step you should take? Ask God to help you trust Him as you move forward in His grace.
So often, Father, I’m frozen by uncertainty and fear. I pray that You’ll guide my steps as I trust You for Your good will to be done.
For further study, read When Fear Seems Overwhelming: Finding Courage and Hope at DiscoverySeries.org/CB031.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
The Spiritual Search
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Being a Person a Lost One Will Come To

She was just seven years old; the lone survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, her sister, and her cousin. The sheriff said "she literally fell out of the sky into a dark hole." They called her survival "a miracle."

This "miracle" survivor somehow crawled out of this upside-down wreckage of her dad's plane dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt on a winter night. She was shoeless. She had to go through brambles and underbrush. This what they called "remarkable" young girl navigated two embankments, a hill, and a creek bed in the dark.

And then the light. Actually, just a single security light on a house. When she knocked on that door, a kindly, grandfatherly man brought her inside. Then she was safe. One report said this: "He thinks his security light may have been a beacon." Yeah, a beacon for a little girl who had lost so much. But, thank God, she was alive.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Being a Person a Lost One Will Come To."

This story got me to thinking about who I need to be for people who've lost so much, whose world has suddenly crashed, who need someone to be a light - a "beacon" - in an otherwise dark night.

Actually, this is what my Jesus said I should be as His follower. It's actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 5, beginning with verse 14, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

I've been thinking, what it means to be a light for people in my personal world. Well, it means being one person they know who is all about their need, not about my own. Who has time to listen. Who doesn't just ask the obligatory "How you doin'?" But who asks that second and third question to see if that obligatory "fine" is really how they're doing.

Being a light means being the one who refuses to hear or speak trash talk about anybody. Who protects a person's name when they're not in the room. Who builds a person up and never tears them down. Who says, "Thank you" and "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong."

It's always treating people, as the Bible says, "with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). Not "turning off the light" by making them feel condemned or put down.

The "light" is the person who remembers a person's birthday, who checks on them when they're sick, who's at the hospital, or the wedding, and the funeral. Who drops what I'm doing when they're hurting. Who offers to pray with - not just for - them when God is needed so much.

So I ask myself: do people around me see me as "safe," the "go-to" person when it's dark, when it's lonely? Have I so lived that when they hit a wall, they'll think of me as a safe place to turn? I'll know it's because of the Jesus in me. Am I the light on the porch when people around me are feeling lost?

I can be for one reason. Jesus Christ has been that for me. As a dad who didn't know what to do, when there was no money, in the cold chill of that cemetery. When I was spiritually lost with no hope of heaven, because of running my life instead of God running it, I found one beacon in my storm - a cross and an empty tomb. It is, by the way, where you will find that same light, that same help, that same forgiveness; that light inside of you.

If you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, who changes everything by planting His love and His hope inside you so you could survive any storm, I'd invite you to go to our website and let me walk you through the way you can be sure you belong to Him. That's ANewStory.com.

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). He's kept that promise for me every time. If someone in my personal world is wandering in the dark today, I just pray that they've seen the Light in me, because I want them to find a way home.

2 Samuel 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: YOUR PRAYERS MATTER - August 23, 2022
God delights in hearing your prayers!
We can’t even get the plumber to call us back, so why would God listen to our prayers? Your prayers matter to God because you matter to God. You aren’t just anybody, you are his child. When God saved you, he enlisted you. He gave not only forgiveness for your past, but also authority in the present and a role in the future. This life is on-the-job training for eternity. “If we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12 NKJV).
When you, as God’s child, seek to honor the family business, God hears your requests. Will God do what you ask? Perhaps. Or perhaps he will do more than you imagined. Just stand firmly on this promise: “When a believing person prays, great things happen” (James 5:16 NCV).
And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!

2 Samuel 13
 Some time later, this happened: Absalom, David’s son, had a sister who was very attractive. Her name was Tamar. Amnon, also David’s son, was in love with her. Amnon was obsessed with his sister Tamar to the point of making himself sick over her. She was a virgin, so he couldn’t see how he could get his hands on her. Amnon had a good friend, Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was exceptionally streetwise. He said to Amnon, “Why are you moping around like this, day after day—you, the son of the king! Tell me what’s eating at you.”
“In a word, Tamar,” said Amnon. “My brother Absalom’s sister. I’m in love with her.”
5 “Here’s what you do,” said Jonadab. “Go to bed and pretend you’re sick. When your father comes to visit you, say, ‘Have my sister Tamar come and prepare some supper for me here where I can watch her and she can feed me.’”
6 So Amnon took to his bed and acted sick. When the king came to visit, Amnon said, “Would you do me a favor? Have my sister Tamar come and make some nourishing dumplings here where I can watch her and be fed by her.”
7 David sent word to Tamar who was home at the time: “Go to the house of your brother Amnon and prepare a meal for him.”
8-9 So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house. She took dough, kneaded it, formed it into dumplings, and cooked them while he watched from his bed. But when she took the cooking pot and served him, he wouldn’t eat.
9-11 Amnon said, “Clear everyone out of the house,” and they all cleared out. Then he said to Tamar, “Bring the food into my bedroom, where we can eat in privacy.” She took the nourishing dumplings she had prepared and brought them to her brother Amnon in his bedroom. But when she got ready to feed him, he grabbed her and said, “Come to bed with me, sister!”
12-13 “No, brother!” she said, “Don’t hurt me! This kind of thing isn’t done in Israel! Don’t do this terrible thing! Where could I ever show my face? And you—you’ll be out on the street in disgrace. Oh, please! Speak to the king—he’ll let you marry me.”
14 But he wouldn’t listen. Being much stronger than she, he raped her.
15 No sooner had Amnon raped her than he hated her—an immense hatred. The hatred that he felt for her was greater than the love he’d had for her. “Get up,” he said, “and get out!”
16-18 “Oh no, brother,” she said. “Please! This is an even worse evil than what you just did to me!”
But he wouldn’t listen to her. He called for his valet. “Get rid of this woman. Get her out of my sight! And lock the door after her.” The valet threw her out and locked the door behind her.
18-19 She was wearing a long-sleeved gown. (That’s how virgin princesses used to dress from early adolescence on.) Tamar poured ashes on her head, then she ripped the long-sleeved gown, held her head in her hands, and walked away, sobbing as she went.
20 Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has your brother Amnon had his way with you? Now, my dear sister, let’s keep it quiet—a family matter. He is, after all, your brother. Don’t take this so hard.” Tamar lived in her brother Absalom’s home, bitter and desolate.
21-22 King David heard the whole story and was enraged, but he didn’t discipline Amnon. David doted on him because he was his firstborn. Absalom quit speaking to Amnon—not a word, whether good or bad—because he hated him for violating his sister Tamar.
23-24 Two years went by. One day Absalom threw a sheep-shearing party in Baal Hazor in the vicinity of Ephraim and invited all the king’s sons. He also went to the king and invited him. “Look, I’m throwing a sheep-shearing party. Come, and bring your servants.”
25 But the king said, “No, son—not this time, and not the whole household. We’d just be a burden to you.” Absalom pushed, but David wouldn’t budge. But he did give him his blessing.
26-27 Then Absalom said, “Well, if you won’t come, at least let my brother Amnon come.”
“And why,” said the king, “should he go with you?” But Absalom was so insistent that he gave in and let Amnon and all the rest of the king’s sons go.
28 Absalom prepared a banquet fit for a king. Then he instructed his servants, “Look sharp, now. When Amnon is well into the sauce and feeling no pain, and I give the order ‘Strike Amnon,’ kill him. And don’t be afraid—I’m the one giving the command. Courage! You can do it!”
29-31 Absalom’s servants did to Amnon exactly what their master ordered. All the king’s sons got out as fast as they could, jumped on their mules, and rode off. While they were still on the road, a rumor came to the king: “Absalom just killed all the king’s sons—not one is left!” The king stood up, ripped his clothes to shreds, and threw himself on the floor. All his servants who were standing around at the time did the same.
32-33 Just then, Jonadab, his brother Shimeah’s son, stepped up. “My master must not think that all the young men, the king’s sons, are dead. Only Amnon is dead. This happened because of Absalom’s outrage since the day that Amnon violated his sister Tamar. So my master, the king, mustn’t make things worse than they are, thinking that all your sons are dead. Only Amnon is dead.”
34 Absalom fled.
Just then the sentry on duty looked up and saw a cloud of dust on the road from Horonaim alongside the mountain. He came and told the king, “I’ve just seen a bunch of men on the Horonaim road, coming around the mountain.”
35-37 Then Jonadab exclaimed to the king, “See! It’s the king’s sons coming, just as I said!” He had no sooner said the words than the king’s sons burst in—loud laments and weeping! The king joined in, along with all the servants—loud weeping, many tears. David mourned the death of his son a long time.
37-39 When Absalom fled, he went to Talmai son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. He was there three years. The king finally gave up trying to get back at Absalom. He had come to terms with Amnon’s death.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Today's Scripture
2 Chronicles 24:2
,
13–16
Taught and trained by Jehoiada the priest, Joash did what pleased God throughout Jehoiada’s lifetime.
The construction workers kept at their jobs steadily until the restoration was complete—the house of God as good as new! When they had finished the work, they returned the surplus money to the king and Jehoiada, who used the money for making sacred vessels for Temple worship, vessels for the daily worship, for the Whole-Burnt-Offerings, bowls, and other gold and silver liturgical artifacts.
14–16  Whole-Burnt-Offerings were made regularly in The Temple of God throughout Jehoiada’s lifetime. He died at a ripe old age—130 years old! They buried him in the royal cemetery because he had such a distinguished life of service to Israel and God and God’s Temple.
Insight
In the traditional Jewish order of Scripture, 1–2 Chronicles are placed as the last books of the Hebrew Bible—functioning as a summary of the Old Testament. First Chronicles begins with Adam (1:1) and 2 Chronicles concludes with Israel’s return from exile (36:22–23).
First and Second Chronicles retell much of the same history found in the books of Samuel and Kings but with a different focus. The Chronicles seek to give the returned exiles hope for the future by pointing to a coming Messiah through David’s line and restored worship in the temple. To inspire faithfulness to God and Scripture, the books of Chronicles also offer many character studies of both faithfulness and unfaithfulness. In 2 Chronicles 24, the high priest Jehoiada is a model of faithfulness, while King Joash was faithful only during Jehoiada’s lifetime, later persuaded by other officials to return to idolatry (vv. 17–18).
By: Monica La Rose
The Course of a Lifetime
Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest.

2 Chronicles 24:2
“There are different questions a young artist can ask,” says singer-songwriter Linford Detweiler of eclectic folk duo Over the Rhine. “One is, ‘What must I do to be famous?’ ” Detweiler warns that such a goal “swings the door open to all manner of destructive forces from both within and without.” He and his wife have instead chosen a less flashy musical road in which they “continue to grow over the course of an entire lifetime.”
The name Jehoiada isn’t readily recognized, yet it’s synonymous with a lifetime of dedication to God. He served as priest during the reign of King Joash, who for the most part ruled well—thanks to Jehoiada.
When Joash was just seven years old, Jehoiada had been the catalyst in installing him as rightful king (2 Kings 11:1–16). But this was no power grab. At Joash’s coronation, Jehoiada “made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people that they would be the Lord’s people” (v. 17). He kept his word, implementing badly needed reforms. “As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 24:14). For his dedication, Jehoiada “was buried with the kings in the City of David” (v. 16).
Eugene Peterson calls such a God-focused life “a long obedience in the same direction.” Ironically, it’s such obedience that stands out in a world bent on fame, power, and self-fulfillment.
By:  Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
How would you describe the direction of your life to this point? What changes might you want to ask God to help you make?
For further study, see Leadership Basics
Dear God, help me pursue You and Your wisdom for my life instead of the fleeting things I’ve been seeking.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Prayer—Battle in “The Secret Place”
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “…pray to your Father who is in the secret place….” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us. Disciples Indeed, 388 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 113-115; 1 Corinthians 6

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

THE SURPRISING SECRET OF GREATNESS - #9292
The book is called Good to Great. It's a thought-provoking book on management written by Jim Collins and a research team that he headed. They identified eleven of the most effective companies in the United States, and then they pursued this question: "What specifically makes these companies so different?" This research actually challenged many of the author's preconceptions. There were actually lots of surprises. Interestingly, the first thing Collins and his team point to as common to every one of these consistently successful companies is this, and it is a surprise - the modesty of the various CEOs who led them. They suggest that the starting point of a great company is a humble leader - highly focused, sometimes driven people - but known for being gracious, self-effacing, understated. I guess in a word, humble.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Surprising Secret of Greatness."
If you've listened much to what Jesus says about leadership, those recent "discoveries" shouldn't be a great surprise to you. In Mark 10, beginning with verse 42, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus presents what most people believe about being a leader - and then the truth according to Jesus.
He says: "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them...not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." Then Jesus backs it up with the way He lived His own life: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."
Jesus believes that you can earn your authority in people's lives by serving them, by putting them first, by helping them succeed. And, sure enough, the most contemporary research only reinforces the importance of humility in leadership. The Good to Great authors illustrate their conclusions in this area with what they call windows and mirrors. When these successful CEOs do something right, they walk over to a window and point to all the reasons out there (especially all the other people) that are the reasons for their success. When they do something wrong, they walk to a mirror and they assume the blame themselves. Less effective leaders? Well, the authors say they do it just the other way around - when things go wrong they point out the window and point to excuses and explanations. When things are going right, they go to the mirror to admire the one who deserves the credit they think.
Whether you're in a position to lead your children, or lead a business, or a staff, or a church, a class, a project, a ministry, don't fall for the popular lies about leading people - that success means being pushy or punishing, pulling rank, playing politics, manipulating, promoting yourself. No, it's humble servanthood that is the surprising secret of success. That's humility as in always being teachable, and courteous, vulnerable, willing to accept responsibility rather than place blame; caring about the person, not just the project.
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft's godly father tried to prepare him for life in the nation's Capitol after his son had gotten elected to the United States Senate. Listen to what he said, "John, the culture of Washington is a culture of arrogance." (By the way, most power-centers are.) He said, " But the culture of Jesus is a culture of humility. Don't get sucked into the culture of arrogance."
That's good advice for any of us who have someone to lead. Remember, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).

John 3:16-36 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A WALL OF FEAR - August 22, 2022
Perhaps standing before you is a wall of fear. Brick upon brick of anxiety and dread. Haunting you are the kings of confusion. Thanks to them, you’ve struggled with your identity and destiny. You’ve bought the lie that life has no purpose, that life has no absolutes. As a child of God, it comes down to a simple decision to believe and receive your position as an heir of God and coheir with Christ.
“In this world we are like Jesus” (1 John 4:17). Our inheritance is every bit as abundant as that of Jesus himself. What he receives, we receive. What message are you carving on that wall of fear? What words are you writing? Choose hope, not despair. Choose life, not death. Choose God’s promises. You are a new person — live like one! Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable.

John 3:16-36
 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
19-21 “This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”
The Bridegroom’s Friend
22-26 After this conversation, Jesus went on with his disciples into the Judean countryside and relaxed with them there. He was also baptizing. At the same time, John was baptizing over at Aenon near Salim, where water was abundant. This was before John was thrown into jail. John’s disciples got into an argument with the establishment Jews over the nature of baptism. They came to John and said, “Rabbi, you know the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan? The one you authorized with your witness? Well, he’s now competing with us. He’s baptizing, too, and everyone’s going to him instead of us.”
27-29 John answered, “It’s not possible for a person to succeed—I’m talking about eternal success—without heaven’s help. You yourselves were there when I made it public that I was not the Messiah but simply the one sent ahead of him to get things ready. The one who gets the bride is, by definition, the bridegroom. And the bridegroom’s friend, his ‘best man’—that’s me—in place at his side where he can hear every word, is genuinely happy. How could he be jealous when he knows that the wedding is finished and the marriage is off to a good start?
29-30 “That’s why my cup is running over. This is the assigned moment for him to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.
31-33 “The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God. The earthborn is earthbound and speaks earth language; the heavenborn is in a league of his own. He sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven. No one wants to deal with these facts. But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth.
34-36 “The One that God sent speaks God’s words. And don’t think he rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces. The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn’t see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 22, 2022
Today's Scripture
Deuteronomy 4:9–14
 Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen and heard to your children and grandchildren.
10  That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, “Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children.”
11–13  You gathered. You stood in the shadow of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire, blazing high into the very heart of Heaven. You stood in deep darkness and thick clouds. God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but you saw nothing—no form, only a voice. He announced his covenant, the Ten Words, by which he commanded you to live. Then he wrote them down on two slabs of stone.
14  And God commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and regulations that you are to live by in the land which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.
Insight
Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 4 reveal two related aspects of the human condition. First, it’s easy to forget important events and words (v. 9a). Second, to avoid this, we need to intentionally keep important things in the forefront of our minds (v. 9b). We can see how this deliberate call to remember the deeds of God anticipates the cycle of generational spiritual wandering that occurs in the book of Judges.
Here in Deuteronomy, the people are encouraged to pass the memories of the deeds of God on to their “children and to their children after them” (vv. 9–10). In the book of Judges, we read (repeatedly) of both the failure to do this and its consequences (see 3:10–12). In each “cycle” of the book of Judges, the disobedience of Israel arises within a generation or two of God’s deliverance—a seeming neglect of passing on His deeds to their children.
By: J.R. Hudberg
Transmitting Truth
Teach [God’s ways and instructions] to your children and to their children after them.

Deuteronomy 4:9
Without the ability to see their grandchildren in person due to risk of infection, many grandparents sought new ways of connecting during the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent survey showed that many grandparents adopted texting and social media as a means to maintain their precious bond with their grandchildren. Some even worshiped with their extended families by video call.
One of the most wonderful ways parents and grandparents can influence their children is by passing down the truths of Scripture. In Deuteronomy 4, Moses charged God’s people to “not forget the things” they’d seen about God “or let them fade from [their] heart[s]” (v. 9). He went on to say that sharing these things with their children and their children’s children would enable them to learn to “revere" Him (v. 10) and to live according to His truth in the land He was giving them.
The relationships God gives us with our families and friends are certainly meant to be enjoyed. By God’s design, they’re also intended to be a conduit to convey His wisdom from one generation to another, “training [them] in righteousness” and equipping them for “every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). When we share God’s truth and work in our lives with the next generation—whether by text, call, video, or in-person conversation—we equip them to see and enjoy His work in their own lives.
By:  Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
Who has “transmitted” God’s truth to you? With whom can you share His truth—through a text, a note, or an in-person conversation?
Thank You, God, for the legacy of faith You’ve passed on to me. Please help me to lovingly impart that legacy to others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 22, 2022

“I Indeed. . . But He”
I indeed baptize you with water…but He…will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. —Matthew 3:11
Have I ever come to the point in my life where I can say, “I indeed…but He…”? Until that moment comes, I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Spirit means. I indeed am at the end, and I cannot do anything more— but He begins right there— He does the things that no one else can ever do. Am I prepared for His coming? Jesus cannot come and do His work in me as long as there is anything blocking the way, whether it is something good or bad. When He comes to me, am I prepared for Him to drag every wrong thing I have ever done into the light? That is exactly where He comes. Wherever I know I am unclean is where He will put His feet and stand, and wherever I think I am clean is where He will remove His feet and walk away.
Repentance does not cause a sense of sin— it causes a sense of inexpressible unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am absolutely helpless, and I know that through and through I am not worthy even to carry His sandals. Have I repented like that, or do I have a lingering thought of possibly trying to defend my actions? The reason God cannot come into my life is that I am not at the point of complete repentance.
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John is not speaking here of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an experience, but as a work performed by Jesus Christ. “He will baptize you….” The only experience that those who are baptized with the Holy Spirit are ever conscious of is the experience of sensing their absolute unworthiness.
“I indeed” was this in the past, “but He” came and something miraculous happened. Get to the end of yourself where you can do nothing, but where He does everything.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried.  He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 110-112; 1 Corinthians 5

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 22, 2022
You get pretty immune to the scenery on the roads that you travel all the time. Right? There's an entrance to an Interstate where I used to live in New Jersey that was like that for me. I used that ramp all the time, and there's a sharp bend in it and there are these big SLOW signs, and I was used to those.
One night I was driving that stretch, basically paying no attention to those familiar markers, and then I noticed something that wasn't usually there, and it stood out! It was a hand painted sign sticking up from the railing and it had a simple inscription that haunted me for a long time. It just said, "10-28-88 Together Forever." Now, I don't know why it was there. Maybe it could have been some kind of a romantic remembrance, but my hunch was that there was probably an accident on that treacherous curve and maybe even a couple died together there, and someone assumed that they would then be together forever. Not necessarily.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Together on the Other Side."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Thessalonians, and I'm going to begin reading in chapter 4, verse 14. "We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." Verse 16: "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever."
Oh, that's a great passage. Now, did you notice here how it uses that word "together" people who will in fact be together forever? And the people it's talking about are those it says who believe that Jesus died and rose again. We're talking about people who have committed themselves to the man who died for them, to the man who walked out of His grave under His own power so He could walk into our lives. They're committed to Jesus Christ.
Now, I feel like my Dad; he just died too young. He was just in his 50s when he died. But my Father and I will be together forever because we both have been to the same cross to have our sins forgiven. I could say even at my wife's funeral, "See you again soon, Baby. See you soon, together forever." But there's one thing that will keep you or someone you love out of heaven. God wants you there, but He can't let sin in, and you and I've got it. You've got it until you come to the cross where Jesus died to erase your sin. And then when you die, instantaneously you are with Christ and heaven. You are with Christ and heaven begins. It's a place where there are no goodbyes.
People look at the other destination and try to laugh it off. They think about hell and they say, "Hey, listen! We'll be together forever there. You know, I'll have my friends there." Well, if they're there you won't know it. The only eye witness account we have from hell is in Luke 16, and it points out that the man who is there has no company. He is totally alone forever, not hanging out with his friends.
But no one has to spend eternity there. Jesus took my hell so I don't have to. He did it for you. Is there someone you want to be sure is going to heaven with you? Well, then, don't wait until it's too late to lovingly tell them about Christ, who's the only way to get there, because He's the only one who paid for our sin. Maybe there's someone that you really want to have there: your Mom, your Dad, a child, a friend. Or maybe it's someone you sent on ahead. You know, maybe there's someone who did know Christ for sure and they're in heaven now. But, you know, their faith will not get you in, only yours will.
And so this could be that day. To not just know about Christ, but get to know Him personally. To actually personally take for yourself the life Jesus died to give you. It's eternal life in heaven. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ" the Bible says. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I am Yours."
We'd love to help you get that settled. Go to our website. It's ANewStory.com. Because the day you tell Jesus you're trusting Him as your Savior, you can write that date down and know then that you'll be together forever.

Psalm 51, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: By Grace Through Faith
The supreme force in salvation is God's grace. Not our works. Not our talents. Not our feelings. Not our strength. Faith is not born at the negotiating table where we barter our gifts in exchange for God's goodness. Faith is not an award given to the most learned. It's not a prize given to the most disciplined.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast."
We, like Paul, are aware of two things. We are great sinners and we need a great Savior. Salvation is God's sudden, calming presence during the stormy seas of our lives. Death is disarmed. Failures are forgiven. Life has real purpose. And God is not only within sight-He is within reach!
From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 51
Generous in love—God, give grace!
    Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
    soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been;
    my sins are staring me down.
4-6 You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen
    it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
    whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
    in the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out.
    Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
    scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
    set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
    give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
    shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
    or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
    put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
    so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
    and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
    I’ll let loose with your praise.
16-17 Going through the motions doesn’t please you,
    a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
    when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
    don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.
18-19 Make Zion the place you delight in,
    repair Jerusalem’s broken-down walls.
Then you’ll get real worship from us,
    acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls
    they can heave onto your altar!

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Today's Scripture
Matthew 7:24–27
 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
26–27  “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
Insight
Though the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) is often considered the starting point of Jesus’ public ministry, it actually began in Matthew 4, where He began preaching the kingdom (v. 17), gathering disciples (vv. 18–22), and performing miracles (vv. 23–25). When Matthew 5:1 says that Jesus was followed by crowds, those crowds were the result of the work He’d started in Matthew 4. The Sermon on the Mount launches the basic structure around which Matthew will tell the story of Jesus. It’s the first of five major addresses Matthew records and which form the backbone of his gospel. Some scholars speculate that Matthew presented his gospel based on five messages because his primary audience was Jewish, and they already revered the five books of Moses and the book of Psalms, which is divided into five books. As such, they were accustomed to dealing with content in groups of five.
By: Bill Crowder
Two Houses
Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Matthew 7:24
To test the stability of two houses, engineers simulated a Category 3 hurricane by using powerful fans that produced wind gusts of one hundred miles per hour for ten minutes. The first house was built according to a non-hurricane building code, and the other was put together with a reinforced roof and floors. The first house shook and eventually collapsed, but the second house survived with only a few cosmetic damages. One of the engineers summarized the study by asking, "Which house would you rather be living in?"
Concluding His teaching on values of kingdom living, Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24). The fierce winds blew, but the house survived. In contrast, the person who hears and yet doesn’t obey, “is like a foolish man who built his house on sand” (v. 26). The fierce winds blew, and the house collapsed under the intensity of the storm. Jesus presented His audience with two options: build your lives on the solid foundation of obedience to Him or on the unstable sand of your own ways.
We too have to make a choice. Will we build our lives on Jesus and obedience to His words or disobedience to His instruction? By the Holy Spirit’s help, we can choose to build our lives on Christ.

Reflect & Pray
How have you experienced what it means to have Jesus as the foundation of your life? In what areas is He inviting you into greater obedience?
Jesus, help me to abide in You so that when the storms rise and the winds blow, I'll remain true to You—established forever by Your grace.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 21, 2022
The Ministry of the Unnoticed
Blessed are the poor in spirit… —Matthew 5:3
The New Testament notices things that do not seem worthy of notice by our standards. “Blessed are the poor in spirit….” This literally means, “Blessed are the paupers.” Paupers are remarkably commonplace! The preaching of today tends to point out a person’s strength of will or the beauty of his character— things that are easily noticed. The statement we so often hear, “Make a decision for Jesus Christ,” places the emphasis on something our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him— something very different. At the foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is the genuine loveliness of those who are commonplace. I am truly blessed in my poverty. If I have no strength of will and a nature without worth or excellence, then Jesus says to me, “Blessed are you, because it is through your poverty that you can enter My kingdom.” I cannot enter His kingdom by virtue of my goodness— I can only enter it as an absolute pauper.
The true character of the loveliness that speaks for God is always unnoticed by the one possessing that quality. Conscious influence is prideful and unchristian. If I wonder if I am being of any use to God, I instantly lose the beauty and the freshness of the touch of the Lord. “He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). And if I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.
Who are the people who have influenced us most? Certainly not the ones who thought they did, but those who did not have even the slightest idea that they were influencing us. In the Christian life, godly influence is never conscious of itself. If we are conscious of our influence, it ceases to have the genuine loveliness which is characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”?  Disciples Indeed, 389 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 107-109; 1 Corinthians 4

Psalm 32, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: One Option: God
When you recognize God as Creator, you will admire Him. When you recognize His wisdom, you will learn from Him. When you discover His strength, you will rely on Him. But only when He saves you will you worship Him.
It's a "before and after" scenario. Before your rescue, He was high on your priority list, but He shared the spot with others. Then came the storm, the rage, the fight. Despair fell like a fog. Could you turn to your career for help? Only if you want to hide from the storm, not escape it. Lean on your status for strength? A storm isn't impressed with your title. Suddenly you're left with one option-God. And when you ask, genuinely ask, He will come. And from that moment on, He is not just a deity to admire, or a master to obey. He is the Savior.  The Savior to be worshiped!
From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 32
Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—
    you get a fresh start,
    your slate’s wiped clean.
2 Count yourself lucky—
    God holds nothing against you
    and you’re holding nothing back from him.
3 When I kept it all inside,
    my bones turned to powder,
    my words became daylong groans.
4 The pressure never let up;
    all the juices of my life dried up.
5 Then I let it all out;
    I said, “I’ll come clean about my failures to God.”
Suddenly the pressure was gone—
    my guilt dissolved,
    my sin disappeared.
6 These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
    when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
    we’ll be on high ground, untouched.
7 God’s my island hideaway,
    keeps danger far from the shore,
    throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.
8 Let me give you some good advice;
    I’m looking you in the eye
    and giving it to you straight:
9 “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule
    that needs bit and bridle
    to stay on track.”
10 God-defiers are always in trouble;
    God-affirmers find themselves loved
    every time they turn around.
11 Celebrate God.
    Sing together—everyone!
    All you honest hearts, raise the roof!

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Today's Scripture
Philippians 3:10–21
  I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
Focused on the Goal
12–14  I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.
15–16  So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.
17–19  Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites.
20–21  But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
Insight
When Paul received the Macedonian vision (Acts 16:6–10), he and his colleagues found passage from Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and traveled to Philippi. There, they searched out a prayer meeting where they shared the message of the love of Christ, resulting in the first converts in Europe. Later, however, Paul and Silas were arrested and beaten severely. This suffering led to the conversion of the jailer and his family—further strengthening the fledgling assembly of believers. The commitment to go and reach out and the determination not to be deterred by suffering were key elements to the Philippian church’s birth.
By: Bill Crowder
Radiant Drifters
Let us live up to what we have already attained.

Philippians 3:16
Under the night sky in the spring of 2020, surfers rode bioluminescent waves along the coast of San Diego. These lightshows were caused by microscopic organisms called phytoplankton, a name derived from a Greek word meaning “wanderer” or “drifter.” During the day, the living organisms create red tides and capture sunlight that converts into chemical energy. When disturbed in the darkness, they produce an electric blue light.
Believers in Jesus are citizens of heaven who, much like the red-tide algae, live like wanderers or drifters on earth. When difficult circumstances disturb our well-laid plans, the Holy Spirit empowers us to respond like Jesus—the Light of the World—so we can reflect His radiant character in the darkness. According to Paul the apostle, nothing is more valuable than our intimacy with Christ and the righteousness that comes through our faith in Him (Philippians 3:8–9). His life proved that knowing Jesus and the power of His resurrection changes us, impacting the way we live and the way we respond when trials disrupt our lives (vv. 10–16).
When we spend time with God’s Son daily, the Holy Spirit equips us with the truth we need—enabling us to face every challenge on this earth in ways that reflect Christ’s character (vv. 17–21). We can be beacons of God’s love and hope, cutting through the darkness until the day He calls us home or comes again.
By:  Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
How has your perspective on life’s challenges changed as you’ve considered what Christ has done for you? What can you do to become radiant with the character of Christ?
Merciful Jesus, when difficult circumstances come, please shine through me and help me point others to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Christ-Awareness
…and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28
Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all. Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic. Don’t allow yourself to say, “Well, they have just misunderstood me, and this is something over which they should be apologizing to me; I’m sure I must have this cleared up with them already.” Learn to leave others alone regarding this. Simply ask the Lord to give you Christ-awareness, and He will steady you until your completeness in Him is absolute.
A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.
If we try to overcome our self-awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest— the rest of the completion of activity in our lives that is never aware of itself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 105-106; 1 Corinthians 3