John 11:1-29, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: ANOINTED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD - October 18, 2022

Anointing oil is a metaphor for the Spirit of God. “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts…” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NIV). God poured out upon you the power-providing, heart-healing oil of the Holy Spirit.

The verb pour deserves to be highlighted. God does not distribute the Spirit with an eyedropper or a tablespoon. He douses us with himself. Do you understand what happened on the day of your conversion? Yes, grace covered you. Yes, the tent of God’s sovereignty was stretched over you. Yes, the pathway to heaven was laid out before you. And yes, you were anointed by the Holy Spirit. You have been consecrated for a holy work.

John 11:1-29

The Death of Lazarus

A man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. This was the same Mary who massaged the Lord’s feet with aromatic oils and then wiped them with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Master, the one you love so very much is sick.”

4 When Jesus got the message, he said, “This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God’s glory by glorifying God’s Son.”

5-7 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days. After the two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

8 They said, “Rabbi, you can’t do that. The Jews are out to kill you, and you’re going back?”

9-10 Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in daylight doesn’t stumble because there’s plenty of light from the sun. Walking at night, he might very well stumble because he can’t see where he’s going.”

11 He said these things, and then announced, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I’m going to wake him up.”

12-13 The disciples said, “Master, if he’s gone to sleep, he’ll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine.” Jesus was talking about death, while his disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap.

14-15 Then Jesus became explicit: “Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there. You’re about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let’s go to him.”

16 That’s when Thomas, the one called the Twin, said to his companions, “Come along. We might as well die with him.”

17-20 When Jesus finally got there, he found Lazarus already four days dead. Bethany was near Jerusalem, only a couple of miles away, and many of the Jews were visiting Martha and Mary, sympathizing with them over their brother. Martha heard Jesus was coming and went out to meet him. Mary remained in the house.

21-22 Martha said, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you.”

23 Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.”

24 Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”

25-26 “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.”

28 After saying this, she went to her sister Mary and whispered in her ear, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”

29-32 The moment she heard that, she jumped up and ran out to him. Jesus had not yet entered the town but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When her sympathizing Jewish friends saw Mary run off, they followed her, thinking she was on her way to the tomb to weep there. Mary came to where Jesus was waiting and fell at his feet, saying, “Master, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Today's Scripture

2 Corinthians 12:1–10

Paul’s Vision and His Thorn

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Insight

In 2 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul continued his reluctant “boasting” he began in the previous chapter to counteract the claims of the “super apostles,” false teachers who were misleading the Corinthians by preaching “a Jesus other than the Jesus [Paul] preached” (11:4). In chapter 12, he tells of a time years earlier when he’d been “caught up to the third heaven” (v. 2), or paradise, the place of God’s throne. According to ancient Jewish belief, there were three heavens. The first heaven was the earth’s atmosphere (winds and clouds) and the second consisted of the sun, moon, and stars.

By: Alyson Kieda

Beyond Words

This man . . . heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 2 Corinthians 12:3–4

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) was one of the church’s most celebrated defenders of the faith. Yet just three months before his death, something caused him to leave unfinished his Summa Theologica, the massive legacy of his life’s work. While reflecting on the broken body and shed blood of his Savior, Aquinas claimed to see a vision that left him without words. He said, “I can write no more. I have seen things that make my writings seem like straw.”

Before Aquinas, Paul too had a vision. In 2 Corinthians, he described the experience: “[I]—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things” (12:3–4).  

Paul and Aquinas left us to reflect on an ocean of goodness that neither words nor reason can express. The implications of what Aquinas saw left him without hope of finishing his work in a way that would do justice to a God who sent His Son to be crucified for us. By contrast, Paul continued to write, but he did so in the awareness of what he couldn’t express or finish in his own strength.

In all the troubles Paul encountered in service to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:16–33; 12:8–9), he could look back and see, in his weakness, a grace and goodness beyond words and wonder. 

By:  Mart DeHaan

Reflect & Pray

What problem have you had that seemed like a curse? How have you seen God show Himself good to you in ways you can’t describe?

Father in heaven, please give me the courage today to look for an inexpressible sense of Your presence and strength in my weakness.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion

…they went forth for His name’s sake… —3 John 7

Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.

Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.

The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.

The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be.  Conformed to His Image, 354 L

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 53-55; 2 Thessalonians 1

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

YOUR SAFE ROOM IN YOUR STORM - #9332

Even the reporters choked up. That monster tornado tore up in Moore, Oklahoma, tore at our hearts: houses gone, neighborhoods gone, schools gone, children - gone.

Even though it was several years ago, I still remember the pictures. People were wandering the streets "like zombies," it said, trying to figure out where their house was. Parents waited in the mud, looking for some shred of hope that their child was somehow alive beneath the rubble of that school. Children were in shelters, wondering if they'd ever see their parents again. I'll tell you, the photos, the stories, and the video images defied words. Some of them struck a pretty deep chord in my heart.

Like the team from Joplin, Missouri, who hurried there to help people in a way that only they could. See, a few years before, it was part of their town that vanished in one of the deadliest twisters ever. They know how having your world erased in a moment feels.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Safe Room in Your Storm."

It's strange isn't it? The worst things that happen to us become the compassion and the comfort that we have to give to other wounded people. Those who've been hurt become heroes of healing for others who are bleeding. As the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:4, "We can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." Somehow our pain has meaning when we use it to rebuild someone else's life. I call it crud-entials. How the crud of your life qualifies you to help a hurting world.

I was touched, too, by the directive given by the rescuers at the leveled Plaza Towers Elementary School. Knowing there were children in that rubble, the first responders asked everyone to just be quiet, "So we can listen for voices." That's what I want to be better at; stopping the chatter so I can listen for the voices of people in trouble. They're all around us, if we have ears to hear their cries. They've been buried by one of life's violent storms. It's easy to miss them if we're running so fast we run right by them. God, help me listen for their voices.

Now the stories of the hero teachers there surfaced on every newscast. Like the teacher at Briarwood Elementary who knew what the approaching tornado could do to those children she loved. So she told them, "We're going to line up our desks, get under them and play 'Worms.'" And they sang real loud - a little song I sang as a kid. "Jesus loves me, this I know." It's good to know when your world is falling down around you isn't it? The roof of the school ended up on top of their desks and they were OK.

Then there were the teachers who threw their bodies over their students' bodies; abandoning themselves, risking their lives to save their children. For me, that's the man whose sacrifice has changed my life. "Jesus loves me, this I know."

I'm still thinking about the woman who got her kids from the soon-to-be demolished school just in time, and reached her home just in time to get everyone into their recently-built safe room. It was all that was left when the storm passed by. I loved what she said about rebuilding her house. "I'll build it around the safe room." That's a good idea. Not just for a house, but for a life.

There are so many sudden storms aren't there, so many life-changers that are beyond our control? We need a safe room where the storm that takes so much can't take you; an unshakeable eternity, an unloseable love.

Well in our word for today from the Word of God in Hebrews 6:19, God says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." The Bible's talking about Jesus. He's my one Safe Place. Storms have taken their toll to be sure, but I'm OK, because He never let me go. I know He never will, because He hung on a cross for my sin and for yours.

See, these news stories remind us of how fragile life is, how much a storm can change things. Jesus offers you today, not a religion, but a relationship that anchors you forever. So, I want to invite you to join me at our website, where you can see how to begin a relationship with Him today. Go to ANewStory.com and you know what you'll find there? The one anchor that never moves.

Psalm 29, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE FIRE OF THE SPIRIT - October 17, 2022

“Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” (Hebrews 10:24-25 NRSV).

When the fire of the Spirit seems to flicker, what can we do? One of the most practical answers has to do with the importance of the church. The church is far from perfect. Even so, the church is the campfire that God uses to keep us kindled. Fire is a protective element. The eastern shepherd would surround his fold at night with a wall of fire, keeping the wild beasts out and the sheep safe within. The fire of the Spirit deflects a thousand temptations. He loves you too much to leave you unguarded, so welcome his help. He will purify, refine, energize, and protect. No one can do more than He.

Psalm 29

Bravo, God, bravo!

    Gods and all angels shout, “Encore!”

In awe before the glory,

    in awe before God’s visible power.

Stand at attention!

    Dress your best to honor him!

3 God thunders across the waters,

Brilliant, his voice and his face, streaming brightness—

God, across the flood waters.

4 God’s thunder tympanic,

God’s thunder symphonic.

5 God’s thunder smashes cedars,

God topples the northern cedars.

6 The mountain ranges skip like spring colts,

The high ridges jump like wild kid goats.

7-8 God’s thunder spits fire.

God thunders, the wilderness quakes;

He makes the desert of Kadesh shake.

9 God’s thunder sets the oak trees dancing

A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches.

We fall to our knees—we call out, “Glory!”

10 Above the floodwaters is God’s throne

    from which his power flows,

    from which he rules the world.

11 God makes his people strong.

God gives his people peace.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, October 17, 2022

Today's Scripture

Genesis 1:1–4

The Beginning

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

Insight

Genesis means “origin.” Jewish scholars used this Greek title in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. The Hebrew title Bereshith is taken from the first word in the Hebrew text: “In the beginning (bereshith)” (Genesis 1:1). Bereshith simply means “beginnings” or “what is first.” Genesis, the book of many “firsts,” tells of the primeval history of the world in general (chs. 1–11) and the patriarchal history of the people of Israel in particular (chs. 12–50). While not in any agreement concerning the specific dates for the primeval history, scholars suggest that Abraham (ch. 12) moved to Canaan some two thousand years before Christ. Genesis is God’s account of the beginnings of the universe, the human race, and sin. It provides the background for His plan to save humanity through one family (3:15), the descendants of Abraham (12:1–2).

By: K. T. Sim

God Spoke

God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:3

In 1876, inventor Alexander Graham Bell spoke the very first words on a telephone. He called his assistant, Thomas Watson, saying, “Watson, come here. I want to see you.” Crackly and indistinct, but intelligible, Watson heard what Bell had said. The first words spoken by Bell over a phone line proved that a new day for human communication had dawned.

Establishing the dawn of the first day into the “formless and empty” earth (Genesis 1:2), God spoke His first words recorded in Scripture: “Let there be light” (v. 3). These words were filled with creative power. He spoke, and what He declared came into existence (Psalm 33:6, 9). God said, “let there be light” and so it was. His words produced immediate victory as darkness and chaos gave way to the brilliance of light and order. Light was God’s answer to the dominance of darkness. And when He had created the light, He saw that it “was good” (Genesis 1:4).  

God’s first words continue to be powerful in the lives of believers in Jesus. With the dawning of each new day, it’s as if God is restating His spoken words in our lives. When darkness—literally and metaphorically—gives way to the brilliance of His light, may we praise Him and acknowledge that He’s called out to us and truly sees us.

By:  Marvin Williams

Reflect & Pray

When dawn breaks through the darkness, how will you celebrate God’s love and faithfulness? How has God’s light opened your eyes to see Him?

Creator of Light, I praise You for dispelling the darkness of this world—opening my eyes to You and Your presence in my life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, October 17, 2022

The Key of the Greater Work

…I say to you, he who believes in Me,…greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. —John 14:12

Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).

Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do…” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

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: Isaiah 50-52; 1 Thessalonians 5

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, October 17, 2022

THE SECRET OF FINISHING YOUR RACE - #9331

If you're into college sports, it's always a big day. If you're into professional sports, it's always a big day. Some call it Alumni Day or Old Timers' Day. Whatever you call it, it's the time a lot of those who played on that very same field come back to cheer on the men and women who are today's players. If you're a player and the game is tough, glance up there in the stands. You'll see some people up there who know how you feel, who've played the game you're playing, who've gone against that same opponent, and who are up there right now, screaming their lungs out for you. They just really want you to win!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Secret of Finishing Your Race."

That picture of the alumni in the stands, rooting for the ones who are wearing the uniform today? That's the inspiring picture that God gives us for those times when our game is tough. It's in Hebrews 12:1-2, our word for today from the Word of God, and maybe it's God's personal encouragement note for you today.

Here we go. "Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus." So, the image here is one of an Olympic runner, running his race, encircled by thousands of cheering spectators in the stadium. The cheering crowd here is people who've gone before us who are watching us run the same race they have run successfully before us. And you know they've got to be cheering for you: "Don't give up now, man. Don't drop out. No, don't go off on that detour. Don't let that thing trip you up, man. Don't drop your legacy, our legacy. Don't let it die with you!"

So who's in this "great cloud of witnesses?" Well, they're God's honored alumni, who have run for Him in previous generations. The previous chapter, Hebrews 11, identifies some of the all-stars who are watching you and me from the stands: Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. And maybe they've been joined by greats like John Wesley, and John Calvin, and D. L. Moody, and those five missionary martyrs like Jim Elliot. Or maybe it's grandparents, great-grandparents, a mom or dad, who ran their race for Jesus all the way to the finish line, no matter how hard it got.

The previous chapter tells about some heroes of earlier races whose names we don't know but who paid a very high price for the very things you're running for. They're in the stands. They're cheering for you, too - those who it says "faced flogging" and others, the Bible says, who "were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword...the world was not worthy of them" (Hebrews 11:36-38). We're running our race under the gaze of people who paid with their lives to finish their race for Jesus. So what's that that's keeping you from running? What's tripping you up? What's your reason again for slowing down or giving up? This is a faith that people have sacrificed for, shed their blood for!

The secret of running strong and running all the way to the finish line is still the same as it was when the lions came down the chute at the Coliseum 2,000 years ago - "fixing your eyes on Jesus." Because He didn't quit when it meant spikes in His hands and feet. He didn't quit when it was thorns in His head, a spear in His side, and all hell poured into His soul.

So you look up in those stands and you listen to those who finished like heroes. You look up there at the finish line at the One who gave it all for you - and you remember that all of them are counting on you to finish what they started. To carry what they refused to drop. And there's Jesus waiting for you at the finish line, waiting to welcome His weary but winning runner home. You can't stop now!

Psalm 28, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Whispered Reminder
In Matthew 6, Jesus prayed, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
A prayer that begins. . . "May I not view you as a distant father, but as one who has come to earth and understands the challenges and temptations of my life. Be near me today, whisper reminders that you're close. My friends need you today as they make difficult decisions in their workplace and in their families. Show them you are closer than even their earthly fathers. Thank you for hearing me and listening to my pleas. It's in Jesus' name I pray this, amen."
Join me in prayer every day for 4 weeks, and pray 4 minutes per day. Sign on at BeforeAmen.com-it'll change your life!
Before Amen

Psalm 28
Don’t turn a deaf ear
    when I call you, God.
If all I get from you is
    deafening silence,
I’d be better off
    in the Black Hole.
2 I’m letting you know what I need,
    calling out for help
And lifting my arms
    toward your inner sanctuary.
3-4 Don’t shove me into
    the same jail cell with those crooks,
With those who are
    full-time employees of evil.
They talk a good line of “peace,”
    then moonlight for the Devil.
Pay them back for what they’ve done,
    for how bad they’ve been.
Pay them back for their long hours
    in the Devil’s workshop;
Then cap it with a huge bonus.
5 Because they have no idea how God works
    or what he is up to,
God will smash them to smithereens
    and walk away from the ruins.
6-7 Blessed be God—
    he heard me praying.
He proved he’s on my side;
    I’ve thrown my lot in with him.
Now I’m jumping for joy,
    and shouting and singing my thanks to him.
8-9 God is all strength for his people,
    ample refuge for his chosen leader;
Save your people
    and bless your heritage.
Care for them;
    carry them like a good shepherd.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 16, 2022
Today's Scripture
John 14:15–24
The Spirit of Truth
15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.
21 “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”
23-24 “Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.
Insight
Jesus promised that “another advocate” (John 14:16), the “Spirit of truth” (v. 17), would be with His disciples after He was no longer physically present (v. 28). The word advocate (Greek parakletos), used only by John, is a word with legal connotations, a bit like a defense lawyer or counselor. Jesus’ words suggest that He was an advocate and teacher to His disciples while on earth. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Spirit would continue this work (vv. 25–26). First John 2:1 points to an inseparable relationship between Jesus and the Spirit as advocates for believers in Jesus. Here, we’re told “we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”
By: Monica La Rose
The Indwelling Christ
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

John 14:20
English preacher F. B. Meyer (1847–1929) used the example of an egg to illustrate what he called “the deep philosophy of the indwelling Christ.” He noted how the fertilized yolk is a little “life germ” that grows more and more each day until the chick is formed in the shell. So too will Jesus come to live with us through His Holy Spirit, changing us. Meyer said, “From now on Christ is going to grow and increase and absorb into Himself everything else, and be formed in you.”
He apologized for stating the truths of Jesus imperfectly, knowing that his words couldn’t fully convey the wonderful reality of Christ dwelling in believers through the Holy Spirit. But he urged his listeners to share with others, however imperfectly, what Jesus meant when He said, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). Jesus said these words on the night of His last supper with His friends. He wanted them to know that He and His Father would come and make their home with those who obey Him (v. 23). This is possible because through the Spirit Jesus dwells in those who believe in Him, changing them from the inside out.
No matter how you picture it, we have Christ living inside us, guiding us and helping us to grow to be more like Him.
By:  Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
What difference does it make to you that Jesus dwells within you? How do you see His presence in others?
Dear Jesus, You’re God and man. Thank You for giving of Yourself so sacrificially, that I might be called a child of God.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 16, 2022
The Key to the Master’s Orders
Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. —Matthew 9:38
The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer. “Pray the Lord of the harvest….” In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.
From Jesus Christ’s perspective, there are no nations, but only the world. How many of us pray without regard to the persons, but with regard to only one Person— Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and through conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we have to pray that laborers be sent out to reap. We stay busy at work, while people all around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them, but simply waste our Lord’s time in over-energized activities and programs. Suppose a crisis were to come into your father’s or your brother’s life— are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Is your response, “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, “a servant [who] is not greater than his master” (John 13:16), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us to no special work— He calls us to Himself. “Pray the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10.  Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 47-49; 1 Thessalonians 4

Psalm 27, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Be Honest — Honest to God
Prayer really is simple. Resist the urge to complicate it. Don’t take pride in well-crafted prayers. Don’t apologize for incoherent prayers. No games. No cover-ups. Just be honest—honest to God.
Climb into His lap. Tell Him everything that’s on your heart. Or tell Him nothing at all. Just lift your heart to heaven and declare, “Father. . .Daddy.” Stress. Fear. Guilt. Grief. Demands on all sides. And all we can summon is a plaintive, “Oh, Father.” If so, that’s enough. Your heavenly Father will wrap you in His arms!
Sign on at BeforeAmen.com–take the brief Prayer Strengths Assessment. It will encourage you and give you a simple building block for your growth in prayer. Then get ready to connect with God as never before!
Before Amen

Psalm 27
Light, space, zest—
    that’s God!
So, with him on my side I’m fearless,
    afraid of no one and nothing.
2 When vandal hordes ride down
    ready to eat me alive,
Those bullies and toughs
    fall flat on their faces.
3 When besieged,
    I’m calm as a baby.
When all hell breaks loose,
    I’m collected and cool.
4 I’m asking God for one thing,
    only one thing:
To live with him in his house
    my whole life long.
I’ll contemplate his beauty;
    I’ll study at his feet.
5 That’s the only quiet, secure place
    in a noisy world,
The perfect getaway,
    far from the buzz of traffic.
6 God holds me head and shoulders
    above all who try to pull me down.
I’m headed for his place to offer anthems
    that will raise the roof!
Already I’m singing God-songs;
    I’m making music to God.
7-9 Listen, God, I’m calling at the top of my lungs:
    “Be good to me! Answer me!”
When my heart whispered, “Seek God,”
    my whole being replied,
“I’m seeking him!”
    Don’t hide from me now!
9-10 You’ve always been right there for me;
    don’t turn your back on me now.
Don’t throw me out, don’t abandon me;
    you’ve always kept the door open.
My father and mother walked out and left me,
    but God took me in.
11-12 Point me down your highway, God;
    direct me along a well-lighted street;
    show my enemies whose side you’re on.
Don’t throw me to the dogs,
    those liars who are out to get me,
    filling the air with their threats.
13-14 I’m sure now I’ll see God’s goodness
    in the exuberant earth.
Stay with God!
    Take heart. Don’t quit.
I’ll say it again:
    Stay with God.

Saturday, October 15, 2022
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Today's Scripture
Jeremiah 29:4–14
This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5  “Build houses and make yourselves at home.
“Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.
6  “Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away.
7  “Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.
“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”
8–9  Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree!
10–11  This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
12  “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.
13–14  “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.
“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

Insight
Sometimes the prophet Jeremiah is called the “weeping prophet” because of the way he grieved over the people being taken captive by Babylon. In Jeremiah 13:17, we read: “If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the Lord’s flock will be taken captive.” It’s just one expression of the prophet’s many tears shed for his people (see also 9:1, 18; 14:17; 31:16). Lamentations 2:11 also describes Jeremiah’s tears as he observed the fall of Jerusalem.
By: Bill Crowder
Signs of Life
I will come to you and fulfill my good promise. Jeremiah 29:10
When my daughter received a pair of pet crabs as a gift, she filled a glass tank with sand so the creatures could climb and dig. She supplied water, protein, and vegetable scraps for their dining pleasure. They seemed happy, so it was shocking when they disappeared one day. We searched everywhere. Finally, we learned they were likely under the sand, and would be there for about two months as they shed their exoskeletons.
Two months passed, and then another month, and I had begun to worry that they’d died. The longer we waited, the more impatient I became. Then, finally, we saw signs of life, and the crabs emerged from the sand.
I wonder if Israel doubted that God’s prophecy for them would be fulfilled when they lived as exiles in Babylon. Did they feel despair? Did they worry they’d be there forever? Through Jeremiah, God had said, “I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to [Jerusalem]” (Jeremiah 29:10). Sure enough, seventy years later, God caused the Persian king Cyrus to allow the Jews to return and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1–4).
In seasons of waiting when it seems like nothing is happening, God hasn’t forgotten us. As the Holy Spirit helps us to develop patience, we can know that He’s the Hope-Giver, the Promise-Keeper, and the One who controls the future.
By:  Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Reflect & Pray
How does understanding God’s character help you when you’re waiting? What’s the relationship between doubt and faith?
Dear God, help me to have faith in You as I wait. Show me how to handle doubt and display faith instead.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 15, 2022
The Key to the Missionary’s Message
He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. —1 John 2:2
The key to the missionary’s message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. Look at any other aspect of Christ’s work, whether it is healing, saving, or sanctifying, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation.
The real key to the missionary’s message is the “remissionary” aspect of Christ’s life, not His kindness, His goodness, or even His revealing of the fatherhood of God to us. “…repentance and remission of sins should be preached…to all nations…” (Luke 24:47). The greatest message of limitless importance is that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins….” The missionary’s message is not nationalistic, favoring nations or individuals; it is “for the whole world.” When the Holy Spirit comes into me, He does not consider my partialities or preferences; He simply brings me into oneness with the Lord Jesus.
A missionary is someone who is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master. He is not to proclaim his own point of view, but is only to proclaim “the Lamb of God.” It is easier to belong to a faction that simply tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, and easier to become a devotee of divine healing, or of a special type of sanctification, or of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul did not say, “Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel— “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
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
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 45-46; 1 Thessalonians 3

John 10:22-42 And Devotionals

 Max Lucado: POWER FROM THE SPIRIT - October 14, 2022

Perhaps the greatest characteristic of fire is this: energy. It is the secret of the electric current. It has empowered countless coal-burning engines and fueled too many stoves to count. Fire combusts. Fire ignites. Fire moves things. And the Spirit? Does he not move us? “You shall receive power,” promised Jesus, “when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8 NKJV).

God doesn’t want us to give him our best effort. We don’t try our hardest and then turn to God; we turn to God and trust him to do the work for and in us. The greatest force in the universe will work within you to give you the power you need to become more and more like him. He will make you holy, in an instant, and make you holier over a lifetime.

John 10:22-42

They were celebrating Hanukkah just then in Jerusalem. It was winter. Jesus was strolling in the Temple across Solomon’s Porch. The Jews, circling him, said, “How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you’re the Messiah, tell us straight out.”

25-30 Jesus answered, “I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words. You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.”

31-32 Again the Jews picked up rocks to throw at him. Jesus said, “I have made a present to you from the Father of a great many good actions. For which of these acts do you stone me?”

33 The Jews said, “We’re not stoning you for anything good you did, but for what you said—this blasphemy of calling yourself God.”

34-38 Jesus said, “I’m only quoting your inspired Scriptures, where God said, ‘I tell you—you are gods.’ If God called your ancestors ‘gods’—and Scripture doesn’t lie—why do you yell, ‘Blasphemer! Blasphemer!’ at the unique One the Father consecrated and sent into the world, just because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I don’t do the things my Father does, well and good; don’t believe me. But if I am doing them, put aside for a moment what you hear me say about myself and just take the evidence of the actions that are right before your eyes. Then perhaps things will come together for you, and you’ll see that not only are we doing the same thing, we are the same—Father and Son. He is in me; I am in him.”

39-42 They tried yet again to arrest him, but he slipped through their fingers. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and stayed there. A lot of people followed him over. They were saying, “John did no miracles, but everything he said about this man has come true.” Many believed in him then and there.

Our Daily Bread Devotional 

Read: 

Deuteronomy 10:14–22  Look around you: Everything you see is God’s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors who God fell in love with; he picked their children—that’s you!—out of all the other peoples. That’s where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.

19-21 

You must treat foreigners with the same loving care—
    remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt.
Reverently respect God, your God, serve him, hold tight to him,
    back up your promises with the authority of his name.
He’s your praise! He’s your God!
He did all these tremendous, these staggering things
    that you saw with your own eyes.

22 When your ancestors entered Egypt, they numbered a mere seventy souls. And now look at you—you look more like the stars in the night skies in number. And your God did it.

Insight: Today’s passage (Deuteronomy 10:14–22) is written in a more elevated style from the rest of the book; it contains more descriptive language and uses rhetorical devices—such as repetition of ideas in different forms—to allow the hearer to absorb the content. This suggests that Moses’ speech is reaching a climax. Old Testament scholar Daniel Block says that Moses “is about to declare the moral and spiritual implications of the privilege of covenant relationship that he has been preaching to this point of the second address.” The moral requirement is adherence to the law of God. Moses reiterates this three times with three different admonitions: keep the commands (vv. 12–13), circumcise your heart (v. 16), and fear and serve God (v. 20). Each of these calls to submit to and serve God is followed by an attribution of praise (see vv. 14, 17, 21).

Baby boy:

By Tim Gustafson

[God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you. Deuteronomy 10:18

For more than a year, his legal name was “Baby Boy.” Discovered by a security guard who heard his cries, Baby Boy had been abandoned—hours old and wrapped only in a bag—in a hospital parking lot.

Soon after his discovery, Social Services called the people who would one day become his forever family. The couple took him in and called him Grayson (not his real name). Finally, the adoption was complete, and Grayson’s name became official. Today you can meet a delightful child who mispronounces his r’s as he earnestly engages you in conversation. You’d never guess he’d once been found abandoned in a bag.

Late in his life, Moses reviewed God’s character and what He’d done for the people of Israel. “The Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them,” Moses told them (Deuteronomy 10:15). This love had a broad scope. “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing,” Moses said (v. 18). “He is the one you praise; he is your God” (v. 21).

Whether it’s through adoption or simply through love and service, we’re all called to reflect God’s love. That loving couple became the hands and feet God used to extend His love to someone who might have gone unnoticed and unclaimed. We can serve as His hands and feet too.

Reflect:How have you sensed God extending His love to you in ways large and small? What small thing might you do today to reflect that love?

Pray: Heavenly Father, have mercy on the fatherless. Help me to be Your hands and feet today. 

My Utmost for His Highest 

The Key to the Missionary’s Work

By Oswald Chambers

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…" —Matthew 28:18-19

The key to the missionary’s work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost. We are inclined to look on our Lord as one who assists us in our endeavors for God. Yet our Lord places Himself as the absolute sovereign and supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say that the lost will never be saved if we don’t go— He simply says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations….” He says, “Go on the basis of the revealed truth of My sovereignty, teaching and preaching out of your living experience of Me.”

“Then the eleven disciples went…to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them” (Matthew 28:16). If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him myself. I must take time to worship the One whose name I bear. Jesus says, “Come to Me…”— that is the place to meet Jesus— “all you who labor and are heavy laden…” (Matthew 11:28)— and how many missionaries are! We completely dismiss these wonderful words of the universal Sovereign of the world, but they are the words of Jesus to His disciples meant for here and now.

“Go therefore….” To “go” simply means to live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say in this verse, “Go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria,” but, “…you shall be witnesses to Me in [all these places].” He takes upon Himself the work of sending us.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…” (John 15:7)— that is the way to keep going. Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings.

“None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus…” (Acts 20:24). That is how to keep going until we are gone from this life.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 43-44; 1 Thessalonians 2

A Word With You by Ron Hutchcraft

Your Goal or Your Soul

Our sons were - and are - crazy about baseball, and then followed the grandsons. They know the players, the standings, the stats. Did I mention they're crazy about baseball? Yeah, it's true; it runs in the family. But dark clouds again rolled in over America's baseball stadiums, because, well, there were suddenly more reports that some stars, who are a lot of kids' heroes, cheated to be great. You remember all that.

PED? No, that's not the initials for some new government program. I guess it's a performance-enhancing steroid against the rules of baseball to have in your system. But it's all about winning, right? In professional sports, the bucks are big, the pressure is big, the temptations are big.

But no one's bigger than the rules. Breaking them might help you win the game, but at a pretty high price. You trade your priceless character for some cheap victories. Your accomplishments aren't really you - they're you plus the drugs. What could have been the Hall of Fame can be overshadowed by the Hall of Shame.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Goal or Your Soul."

Before we put on our black robe to judge some baseball players, maybe we should look in the mirror. See, I'm a very goal-oriented person. I know if you've got a goal, somewhere you're going to be tempted to compromise to get there, because we're all susceptible to that "win, no matter what" drumbeat of our culture. We all want to win in business. We want to have "super kids" so we'll be "super-parents." We want to get the girl, we want to land the guy. Whatever our arena, we're driven to come out on top, no matter what the cost to our family, our integrity, our health, our future. If "winning" means backstabbing, stepping on people, neglecting people, breaking promises, lying, betraying - hey, it's all about winning, right? It's all about getting to our big goal, right?

No, it's all about your soul; your character, who you are, not what you accomplish. It's about giving the game your very best, but without regrets, without compromises, without betraying trust or leaving a trail of tears. After all, who can afford the most costly trade there is: gaining the world in exchange for your soul?

That's why integrity's so important. The Bible says, "The integrity of the upright guides them." See, your integrity's like a missile's internal guidance system. It guarantees that you stay on course and reach your target. So even if I "lose," I really win. My soul was not on sale to get to my goal. That integrity Bible verse concludes by saying, "but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity." Whatever I might gain by compromising, I have so much more to lose.

I've had some disturbingly sad conversations with folks who were nearing the end of their life; people trying to come to terms with some haunting regrets about what - or who - they sacrificed in order to succeed. Sadly, there are no "do-overs." But I'll tell you this: I am profoundly grateful there is forgiveness. In our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 130:3, a man who had terribly failed his God, his family, his followers wrote: "If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness."

Listen, it's not cheap to have every sin of your past erased from God's book. It takes blood, but not mine, not yours. In God's words, "The blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). All sin! However hurtful; covered by the payment that was made for it when Jesus hung on a cross dying for it.

I invite you, if you've never had that cleaning take place; that internal cleansing; the forgiving of God for every wrong thing you've ever done, let this be the day you come to Jesus who died so that could happen and give you to Him. Let me encourage you to go to our website. I'd love to show you exactly how to begin that relationship with Him there. Go to ANewStory.com.

And once you've embraced Him as the Forgiver of your sin, He gives you the grace to retrace your regrets to work to restore what - or who - you've hurt. Because you know what Jesus said, "I make all things new (Revelation 21:5)."

Psalm 26 and Devotionals

 MAX LUCADO: VICTORY OVER SIN - October 13, 2022

The Holy Spirit will give you power over the struggle of sin. Many Christians can relate to these words of the apostle Paul: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24 ESV). This sobering confession is the exclamation point on the apostle’s remembrance of his life before he followed Christ. Each day was a day of defeat. Many people feel the same way today.

If that is you, observe what Paul says just a few verses later. Romans 8 is Paul’s great statement of liberation. In contrast to the previous chapter, he speaks of victory and assurance and grace. The difference? Chapter 7 was life under the old law; chapter 8 is life in the Spirit.

The point? Victory over sin is the result of the presence of God’s Spirit within us.

Psalm 26

Clear my name, God;
    I’ve kept an honest shop.
I’ve thrown in my lot with you, God, and
    I’m not budging.

2 

Examine me, God, from head to foot,
    order your battery of tests.
Make sure I’m fit
    inside and out

3 

So I never lose
    sight of your love,
But keep in step with you,
    never missing a beat.

4-5 

I don’t hang out with tricksters,
    I don’t pal around with thugs;
I hate that pack of gangsters,
    I don’t deal with double-dealers.

6-7 

I scrub my hands with purest soap,
    then join hands with the others in the great circle,
    dancing around your altar, God,
Singing God-songs at the top of my lungs,
    telling God-stories.

8-10 

God, I love living with you;
    your house glows with your glory.
When it’s time for spring cleaning,
    don’t sweep me out with the quacks and crooks,
Men with bags of dirty tricks,
    women with purses stuffed with bribe-money.

11-12 

You know I’ve been aboveboard with you;
    now be aboveboard with me.
I’m on the level with you, God;
    I bless you every chance I get.

Our Daily Bread

Read: Romans 5:6–11

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

Insight:

In Romans 5, the apostle Paul sets up one of the most beautiful pictures of Jesus’ work on the cross. Shortly after saying that God proved His love for humanity through Christ’s death, Paul turns his attention to our death. Death, he says, became a plague over all humanity because the first Adam chose rebellion over obedience. As a result, every human dies. But Jesus—the last Adam—chose obedience to the Father. As a result, He opened the path through death to eternal life for everyone who will believe in Him.

We were God’s enemies when He sent Jesus. We were doomed to die because of Adam’s and our own rebellion. But God didn’t give up on us. Instead, He showed us love through Jesus. And His faithfulness broke both the power of sin and death, leading us back to life.

Will you still love me?

By Karen Huang

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Ten-year-old Lyn-Lyn had finally been adopted, but she was afraid. In the orphanage where she’d grown up, she was punished over the slightest mistake. Lyn-Lyn asked her adoptive mom, who was a friend of mine: “Mommy, do you love me?” When my friend replied yes, Lyn-Lyn asked, “If I make a mistake, will you still love me?”

Although unspoken, some of us might ask that same question when we feel we’ve disappointed God: “Will You still love me?” We know that as long as we live in this world, we’ll fail and sin at times. And we wonder, Do my mistakes affect God’s love for me?

John 3:16 assures us of God’s love. He gave His Son, Jesus, to die on our behalf so that if we believe in Him, we’ll receive eternal life. But what if we fail Him even after we place our trust in Him? That’s when we need to remember that “Christ died for us” even when we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). If He could love us at our worst, how can we doubt His love today when we’re His children?

When we sin, our Father lovingly corrects and disciplines us. That’s not rejection (8:1); that’s love (Hebrews 12:6). Let’s live as God’s beloved children, resting in the blessed assurance that His love for us is steadfast and everlasting.

Reflect: How does understanding God’s love for you strengthen you to obey Him? How does it impact your view of sin?

Pray:Heavenly Father, thank You for Your steadfast and unchanging love.

My Utmost for His Highest 

Individual Discouragement and Personal Growth

By Oswald Chambers

…when Moses was grown…he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. —Exodus 2:11

Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After he launched his first strike for God and for what was right, God allowed Moses to be driven into empty discouragement, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and said to him, “ ‘…bring My people…out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go…?’ ” (Exodus 3:10-11). In the beginning Moses had realized that he was the one to deliver the people, but he had to be trained and disciplined by God first. He was right in his individual perspective, but he was not the person for the work until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God.

We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and yet when we start to do it, there comes to us something equivalent to Moses’ forty years in the wilderness. It’s as if God had ignored the entire thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged, God comes back and revives His call to us. And then we begin to tremble and say, “Who am I that I should go…?” We must learn that God’s great stride is summed up in these words— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). We must also learn that our individual effort for God shows nothing but disrespect for Him— our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God, so that He may be “well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). We are focused on the right individual perspective of things; we have the vision and can say, “I know this is what God wants me to do.” But we have not yet learned to get into God’s stride. If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time of great personal growth ahead.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Awe is the condition of a man’s spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child.  Not Knowing Whither, 882 L

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 41-42; 1 Thessalonians 1

A Word With You by Ron Hutchcraft

MAKING IT THROUGH THE PAIN - #9329

Our three-year-old grandson had been around long enough to show us that he's gonna be the one who lived on the edge. You know, trying daring things, and basically a physical kind of guy. Consequently, he might be on a first name basis with the folks in the emergency room. We hope not, but you know, he's already visited there more than once in his short career. The first time he got a bad cut on his lip from a fall - lots of bleeding, run to the emergency room, stitches. This medical stuff was all new to him. Oh, listen he fought it. It took four people to hold down this tiger while the stitches were put in. It was traumatic for everybody involved - including my wife who was one of those E. R. wrestlers that night trying to hold him down. The second time was when another fall caused a big cut in his chin. Lots of bleeding, run to the emergency room, stitches. Get a pattern here? Less fighting this time. Oh, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't as bad as the first time. Who knows, maybe pretty soon he'll be helping them put the stitches in!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making It Through The Pain."

We figured out two reasons that the second time was a little less traumatic than the first time for our grandson. First, he knew from experience that the pain of this process didn't last forever. Secondly, he knew from his first time around that he got a reward when this was over - let's hear it for popsicles and stickers!

Maybe there's something we can all gain from a little boy's emergency room experiences with pain - maybe it can even help you get through the painful time you're going through right now. What were those two things that helped you get through a process that's really hurting you? You know it won't last forever. You know there's a reward when it's over.

God's great ambassador, Paul, learned those secrets of making it through the pain, and he had a postgraduate degree in suffering - beatings, imprisonments, attacks on his reputation, death threats, excruciating physical conditions. This is a man who's got the credentials to talk to us about the great hurts of life. And he does in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

With all he's enduring, Paul says: "We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, and what is unseen is eternal."

Well, you know, you can lose your health, you can lose your business, you can lose your marriage, you can lose people you love and still not lose heart. How? First, remember these four letters - TTSP. Yep, they stand for, "This too shall pass." Your ordeal is, in Paul's words "momentary" and "temporary" against the backdrop of your eternity in heaven. It won't always be this way. Secondly, think about the reward for finishing your painful assignment faithfully. Paul called it "eternal glory." At the end of this, you've got something really good, and it will last forever.

One other thing that our grandson might ultimately learn about the pain of the doctor's procedures - the purpose of the pain is to make him better. That's the purpose of your pain too. To make you more like Jesus, to make you more of a helper and a healer for hurting people. And, by the way, they're all around you. The relatively short duration of your pain, the reward you'll get for bearing it, the good it can produce in your life - none of those take away the pain, but they sure make it bearable. They give it meaning, and they make you bearable, too.

What you're going through has an end, it has a reward, and it has a point. So you don't have to fight it. The doctor who's got your case - Dr. Jesus - loves you deeply, holds you tightly, and He knows exactly what He's doing.

Psalm 25 And Devotionals

 MAX LUCADO: A REFINING FIRE - October 12, 2022

Fire is a chemical reaction that releases energy in the form of light and heat. If there is enough air, fuel, and heat, the fire will keep advancing. Can’t something similar be said about the Spirit of God? If we let him do his work, he will not be quenched.

Yet this flame is never intended for our harm. Everything that is good about a fire can be listed as a blessing of the Holy Spirit. Fire is a purifying force. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate purifier. Are we fit to serve as a temple of the Holy Spirit? We need the cleansing, sanctifying work of the Spirit of God to prepare us for this assignment.

Invite this refining fire to finish this work in your heart. “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV).

Psalm 25 

My head is high, God, held high;
I’m looking to you, God;
No hangdog skulking for me.

3 

I’ve thrown in my lot with you;
You won’t embarrass me, will you?
Or let my enemies get the best of me?

Don’t embarrass any of us
Who went out on a limb for you.
It’s the traitors who should be humiliated.

4 

Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.

5 

Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren’t you?

6 

Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, God;
Rebuild the ancient landmarks!

7 

Forget that I sowed wild oats;
Mark me with your sign of love.
Plan only the best for me, God!

8 

God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.

9 

He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.

10 

From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.

11 

Keep up your reputation, God;
Forgive my bad life;
It’s been a very bad life.

12 

My question: What are God-worshipers like?
Your answer: Arrows aimed at God’s bull’s-eye.

13 

They settle down in a promising place;
Their kids inherit a prosperous farm.

14 

God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.

15 

If I keep my eyes on God,
I won’t trip over my own feet.

16 

Look at me and help me!
I’m all alone and in big trouble.

17 

My heart and mind are fighting each other;
Call a truce to this civil war.

18 

Take a hard look at my life of hard labor,
Then lift this ton of sin.

19 

Do you see how many people
Have it in for me?
How viciously they hate me?

20 

Keep watch over me and keep me out of trouble;
Don’t let me down when I run to you.

21 

Use all your skill to put me together;
I wait to see your finished product.

22 

God, give your people a break
From this run of bad luck.

Our Daily Bread 

Read-Psalm 90:1–14

God, it seems you’ve been our home forever;
    long before the mountains were born,
Long before you brought earth itself to birth,
    from “once upon a time” to “kingdom come”—you are God.

3-11 

So don’t return us to mud, saying,
    “Back to where you came from!”
Patience! You’ve got all the time in the world—whether
    a thousand years or a day, it’s all the same to you.
Are we no more to you than a wispy dream,
    no more than a blade of grass
That springs up gloriously with the rising sun
    and is cut down without a second thought?
Your anger is far and away too much for us;
    we’re at the end of our rope.
You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed
    since we were children is entered in your books.
All we can remember is that frown on your face.
    Is that all we’re ever going to get?
We live for seventy years or so
    (with luck we might make it to eighty),
And what do we have to show for it? Trouble.
    Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard.
Who can make sense of such rage,
    such anger against the very ones who fear you?

12-17 

Oh! Teach us to live well!
    Teach us to live wisely and well!
Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—
    and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
Surprise us with love at daybreak;
    then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times;
    we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
Let your servants see what you’re best at—
    the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
    confirming the work that we do.
    Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!

Insight- Moses’ authorship of Psalm 90, based on the superscription, makes it the oldest of the psalms whose authorship we know. In addition to this psalm, Moses is ascribed authorship of the first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch or Torah—making him the most prolific Old Testament writer. Some scholars believe that the background to the writing of this psalm may have been Israel’s failure at Kadesh Barnea (Numbers 13–14), where they rejected the land of promise despite Joshua and Caleb’s glowing account of the magnificent new homeland God had promised them. That rejection resulted in the forty years of wilderness wanderings the Israelites endured.

Life Expectancy 

By Kenneth Petersen

A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by.  - Psalm 90:4

In 1990, French researchers had a computer problem: a data error when processing the age of Jeanne Calment. She was 115 years old, an age outside the parameters of the software program. The programmers had assumed no one could possibly live that long! In fact, Jeanne lived until the age of 122.

The psalmist writes, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures” (Psalm 90:10). This is a figurative way of saying that whatever age we live to, even to the age of Jeanne Calment, our lives on earth are indeed limited. Our lifetimes are in the sovereign hands of a loving God (v. 5). In the spiritual realm, however, we’re reminded of what “God time” really is: “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by” (v. 4).

And in the person of Jesus Christ “life expectancy” has been given a whole new meaning: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). “Has” is in the present tense: right now, in our current physical moment of trouble and tears, our future is blessed, and our lifespan is limitless.

In this we rejoice and with the psalmist pray, “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14).

Reflect-What worries do you have about your life and its limits? How are you comforted by the presence of Jesus?

Pray- Loving God, sometimes this life is hard, but—even so—I sing for joy in Your provision for me. Satisfy me today with Your unfailing love.

My Utmost for His Highest 

Getting into God’s Stride

By Oswald Chambers

Enoch walked with God… —Genesis 5:24

The true test of a person’s spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening. A person’s worth is revealed in his attitude toward the ordinary things of life when he is not under the spotlight (see John 1:35-37 and John 3:30). It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself. The individual person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God’s stride and His power alone are exhibited.

It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus— “He will not fail nor be discouraged…” (Isaiah 42:4) because He never worked from His own individual standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father. And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere that surrounds us, not through intellectual reasoning. It is God’s Spirit that changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and then things begin to be possible which before were impossible. Getting into God’s stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give up because the pain is intense right now— get on with it, and before long you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

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

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 39-40; Colossians 4

A Word With You 

By Ron Hutchcraft 

LIVING LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS - #9328

Our oldest son and his wife, who became our wonderful daughter, were living on an Indian reservation and had ministered there for several years. And then it was time to expect their first baby. It was wonderful that this baby girl was going to come. They lived pretty far from the hospital, so of course, you needed to "get in gear" when it was time. Right? And those were the words our daughter-in-law spoke that fateful night, "I think it's time!" Well, they had gone to the classes. They knew what to do. Oh, but my son? Well, he simply started (this is what I've been told) walking around in circles in his living room going, "Okay! Okay!" Meanwhile his wife's gently going, "It's time." "Okay! Okay!" Well, listen, when you know what time it is, you need to know what action to take.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living Like You Know What Time It Is."

By the way, they got there in time. I thought you might want to know.

Well, you and I have been chosen by God to live in very important times, and it's important for us to know what time it is and what to do with that. I mean, people are exploring all kinds of spiritual answers. There are big questions about all the uncertainties of the world economy, and politics, and we're so dependent on technology.

Then there's worry about who's the latest to get nuclear weapons, and terrorism that can pop up anywhere, anytime, and a world that is looking more and more like the kind of world Jesus said he'd come back to than maybe it's ever looked before. These are extraordinary times. It's time to do some extraordinary living. It's time for some urgent action, because God is going, "It's time! It's time!" We're at a defining moment, and we've got to realize what time it is and respond accordingly.

Like some people did at another defining moment some 3,000 years ago. Israel was emerging as a nation, as they have again today. Their first king, Saul, had turned out to be a disaster. He died as a suicide in battle, and people are deciding where their allegiance is going to be. God has His man for king: David. He's about to take his rightful throne as his descendant, Jesus Christ, will do one day when He returns to earth to rule from what the Bible calls "the throne of David."

1 Chronicles 12 records that there were many fighting men who "came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel." We also read that "the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said: 'We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse!'" And then in our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Chronicles 12:32, we read about one group of people who show us how to really be in a defining moment. And they lived in one; we live in one. The Bible describes "the men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do."

Now if you understand the times you're living in, you will know what you should do. And those who are committed to enthroning the rightful king - and we know Christ is that king - they show us the defining choice in defining times back then and now; making the King your king and living to enlarge His kingdom. They were, it says, "fully determined to make David king over all." That's where your choices lie. To make sure the king, King Jesus, first is your king. This is a moment like never before, to say, "I am Yours, O Jesus! I am with You, O Son of God!" He's moving toward wrapping up all of history. You'd better make sure He's the center of your personal history.

Secondly, if you really know what time it is, you're going to be living to enlarge this kingdom of King Jesus before He returns. That means getting as many people to belong to Him as you can. Throwing your influence and your money, your possessions into the greatest cause on this planet; the cause for which your King gave His life - rescuing spiritually dying people.

It's time to look through everything we own, everything we've planned, everything we've dreamed in light of the times that God has chosen us to live in. When it's the fourth quarter, you don't play as if it's the first quarter. Be sure you understand the time and then you'll know what to do.

It has never mattered more to live for what really matters and what will matter forever. Can you hear Jesus saying it, "It's time!"?

Psalm 24 and Devotionals

 MAX LUCADO: A SOUL ABLAZE - October 11, 2022
“I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16 NRSV).
This is how John the Baptist introduced his cousin to the world. Baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire? Such was the job description of Jesus. Heaven arrives packing heat.
Please note that Jesus is the giver of the Holy Spirit fire. Do you desire the Spirit? Then turn to Christ. Receive him as Savior and Lord. He, then, will “baptize” you in the Spirit. He will plunge, immerse, and submerge you in the very being of the Spirit. Just as Jesus stepped out of the river dripping the Jordan, so we step forth into the world drenched in the Spirit of heaven.
The soul baptized in the Spirit is a soul ablaze.

Psalm 24- God claims Earth and everything in it,
    God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
    laid it out on River girders.
3-4 
Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.
5-6 
God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.
7 
Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.
8 
Who is this King-Glory?
    God, armed
    and battle-ready.
9 
Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.
10 
Who is this King-Glory?
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
    he is King-Glory.

Our Daily Bread
Read-Genesis 12:1–9 Abram and Sarai
God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
2-3 
I’ll make you a great nation
    and bless you.
I’ll make you famous;
    you’ll be a blessing.
I’ll bless those who bless you;
    those who curse you I’ll curse.
All the families of the Earth
    will be blessed through you.”
4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.
Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.
7 God appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your children.” Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.
8 He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God.
9 Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev.
Insight;
The Hebrew phrase translated “go” (Genesis 12:1) is literally “go to yourself.” While difficult to translate, this emphatic command is perhaps captured more closely by the King James translation: “Get thee out.” 
The promises given to Abraham—land, abundant children, and blessing (vv. 2–3, 7)—echo the consequences of Adam and Eve’s fall—exile from the garden, difficult childbirth, and difficulty cultivating the land (3:16–24). These parallels hint that God would begin His plan to undo the consequences of the fall through this couple, through whom “all peoples on earth” would “be blessed” (12:3).
Your Part, Gods Part 
By Leslie Koh
Go . . . to the land I will show you. . . . So Abram went. Genesis 12:1, 4
When my friend Janice was asked to manage her department at work after just a few years, she felt overwhelmed. Praying over it, she felt God was prompting her to accept the appointment—but still, she feared she couldn’t cope with the responsibility. “How can I lead with so little experience?” she asked God. “Why put me here if I’m going to be a failure?”
Later, Janice was reading about God’s call of Abram in Genesis 12 and noted that his part was to “go . . . to the land [God] will show you. . . . So Abram went” (vv. 1, 4). This was a radical move, because nobody uprooted like this in the ancient world. But God was asking him to trust Him by leaving everything he knew behind, and He would do the rest. Identity? You’ll be a great nation. Provision? I’ll bless you. Reputation? A great name. Purpose? You’ll be a blessing to all peoples on earth. He made some big mistakes along the way, but “by faith Abraham . . . obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
This realization took a big burden off Janice’s heart. “I don’t have to worry about ‘succeeding’ at my job,” she told me later. “I just have to focus on trusting God to enable me to do the work.” As God provides the faith we need, may we trust Him with all our lives.
Reflect: What worries do you have about your responsibilities? How is God asking you to trust Him in your present circumstances?
Pray-
Dear God, I want to surrender to You my fears and worries about succeeding in my roles and responsibilities. Please help me to do my part as You do Yours.

My Utmost for His Highest 
God’s Silence— Then What?
By Oswald Chambers
When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. —John 11:6

Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 37-38; Colossians 3

A Word With You by Ron Hutchcraft 
Everybody's Got a Story
We met Gal on an Indian reservation. She wasn't very easy to get to know. Gal was a cute black and white dog owned by a missionary couple that our On Eagles' Wings Team was working with on a remote reservation. Most dogs run up to you when you come to the door, even if you're a stranger, and they're usually all over you. Not Gal. She ran the other way and cowered in the corner, no matter how gentle, how friendly you were to her. She didn't want to come out of her corner for anybody. "Strange dog," I thought. Until her owners explained that Gal had been terribly abused by her first owners. When she saw people, she saw pain.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everybody's Got a Story."
You couldn't understand the way that dog acted until you knew her story. People are like that, too. You watch how they act, how they treat people, you see that attitude they have, and you say, "Forget you, buddy" or you respond with the same garbage they'd just dished out to you. But the "make a difference" people in this world, the healers, are the ones who never forget this critical issue in dealing with people: you can't understand the way they act until you know their story. And everybody's got a story.
I remember discovering how wrong I had been about some people in our class in college after many of them poured out their hearts at our senior retreat. Late into the night, people you thought you knew revealed the pain in their background. And suddenly the lights went on and you said, "So that's what I've been seeing all these years!" And you felt badly that you had been responding to them based on their deeds, and never considering the needs behind those deeds.
That's the kind of radical love God's calling you and me to in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 29. He says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up, according to their needs." In other words, don't say things that will tear a person down, just things that will build a person up. Why? Because you're focusing on their needs, not just their deeds. You may hate their deeds, but God's asking you to develop His compassion to respond to the needs that drive their deeds. Whether that person is your child, your spouse, your parent, your friend, your coworker, someone at church.
If you knew their story, you'd understand that they've been made to feel worthless much of their life. So they make choices based on the fact that they're trash they think. Or maybe they treat other people that same way. Maybe their story includes some awful hurt that has turned them hard so they won't get hurt anymore. Maybe there's some morally dark chapters in their past that can make them critical and legalistic today because they hate what they used to be. Maybe they wound because they've been wounded. Somewhere behind the way they act is a story of a perfectionist parent, of trust lost because of abuse, the absence of a father's love, abandonment, failure, tragedy.
So, the Bible says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger." That's our response to their deeds. "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other..." That's how we will respond if we operate, trying to understand there are needs beneath those deeds; there's a history behind those hang-ups.
One thing I can tell you from a lot of years of learning what's really inside people - when a person is hardest to love, they need your love the most! And that's when you ask Jesus to release His love through you because your love isn't enough. React to their bad attitude or their bad treatment, and you can just be another person who just wounds an already wounded person more. Respond with the mercy and the grace and the compassion you get from Jesus and you can be part of healing that wounded person. Because everybody's got a story, and you can help write a new chapter.