Isaiah 51, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The Prison of Pride

The prison of pride. You’ve seen the prisoners—the alcoholic who won’t admit his drinking problem; the woman who refuses to talk to anyone about her fears. Perhaps to see such a prisoner all you have to do is look in the mirror!

The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us” (I John 1:9). The biggest word in Scripture just might be that two-letter one, if.

Confessing sins, admitting failure, is exactly what prisoners of pride refuse to do. They say, “Listen, I’m just as good as the next guy.”  “I pay my taxes.” Justification. Rationalization. Comparison. These are the tools of the jailbird. But in the kingdom of God they sound hollow. Many know they’re wrong, yet pretend they are right. As a result they never taste the exquisite sorrow of repentance.

Blessed are those who know they’re in trouble and have enough sense to admit it!

From The Applause of Heaven

Isaiah 51

Committed to Seeking God

1–3  51 “Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living

and committed to seeking God.

Ponder the rock from which you were cut,

the quarry from which you were dug.

Yes, ponder Abraham, your father,

and Sarah, who bore you.

Think of it! One solitary man when I called him,

but once I blessed him, he multiplied.

Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion,

comfort all her mounds of ruins.

I’ll transform her dead ground into Eden,

her moonscape into the garden of God,

A place filled with exuberance and laughter,

thankful voices and melodic songs.

4–6  “Pay attention, my people.

Listen to me, nations.

Revelation flows from me.

My decisions light up the world.

My deliverance arrives on the run,

my salvation right on time.

I’ll bring justice to the peoples.

Even faraway islands will look to me

and take hope in my saving power.

Look up at the skies,

ponder the earth under your feet.

The skies will fade out like smoke,

the earth will wear out like work pants,

and the people will die off like flies.

But my salvation will last forever,

my setting-things-right will never be obsolete.

7–8  “Listen now, you who know right from wrong,

you who hold my teaching inside you:

Pay no attention to insults, and when mocked

don’t let it get you down.

Those insults and mockeries are moth-eaten,

from brains that are termite-ridden,

But my setting-things-right lasts,

my salvation goes on and on and on.”

9–11  Wake up, wake up, flex your muscles, God!

Wake up as in the old days, in the long ago.

Didn’t you once make mincemeat of Rahab,

dispatch the old chaos-dragon?

And didn’t you once dry up the sea,

the powerful waters of the deep,

And then made the bottom of the ocean a road

for the redeemed to walk across?

In the same way God’s ransomed will come back,

come back to Zion cheering, shouting,

Joy eternal wreathing their heads,

exuberant ecstasies transporting them—

and not a sign of moans or groans.

What Are You Afraid of—or Who?

12–16  “I, I’m the One comforting you.

What are you afraid of—or who?

Some man or woman who’ll soon be dead?

Some poor wretch destined for dust?

You’ve forgotten me, God, who made you,

who unfurled the skies, who founded the earth.

And here you are, quaking like an aspen

before the tantrums of a tyrant

who thinks he can kick down the world.

But what will come of the tantrums?

The victims will be released before you know it.

They’re not going to die.

They’re not even going to go hungry.

For I am God, your very own God,

who stirs up the sea and whips up the waves,

named God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

I teach you how to talk, word by word,

and personally watch over you,

Even while I’m unfurling the skies,

setting earth on solid foundations,

and greeting Zion: ‘Welcome, my people!’ ”

17–20  So wake up! Rub the sleep from your eyes!

Up on your feet, Jerusalem!

You’ve drunk the cup God handed you,

the strong drink of his anger.

You drank it down to the last drop,

staggered and collapsed, dead-drunk.

And nobody to help you home,

no one among your friends or children

to take you by the hand and put you in bed.

You’ve been hit with a double dose of trouble

—does anyone care?

Assault and battery, hunger and death

—will anyone comfort?

Your sons and daughters have passed out,

strewn in the streets like stunned rabbits,

Sleeping off the strong drink of God’s anger,

the rage of your God.

21–23  Therefore listen, please,

you with your splitting headaches,

You who are nursing the hangovers

that didn’t come from drinking wine.

Your Master, your God, has something to say,

your God has taken up his people’s case:

“Look, I’ve taken back the drink that sent you reeling.

No more drinking from that jug of my anger!

I’ve passed it over to your abusers to drink, those who ordered you,

‘Down on the ground so we can walk all over you!’

And you had to do it. Flat on the ground,

you were the dirt under their feet.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, January 13, 2024

Today's Scripture

Hebrews 12:1-3

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

Insight

Who are the “witnesses” the writer refers to in Hebrews 12:1? That’s a matter of some debate, but a plausible interpretation is that they’re the faithful believers who’ve gone before us. Now they stand as “witnesses,” while we on earth remain in the arena, competing in our race of faith (v. 1). We accomplish this by “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (v. 2). This means that Christ is our leader as we live it out. The word pioneer in the Greek is archegos. Other translations render it “author,” “champion,” or “originator.” The path Jesus took was far more difficult than the one we’re on. He bore the sins of the whole world, yet it led to His rightful place “at the right hand of the throne of God” (v. 2). Our race is difficult as well, but we know the joyful conclusion, for He’s blazed the trail for us. By: Tim Gustafson

Persevering in Jesus

Consider him who endured . . . so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:3

When I was studying in seminary years ago, we had a weekly chapel service. At one service, while we students were singing “Great Is the Lord,” I spotted three of our well-loved professors singing with fervor. Their faces radiated joy, made possible only by their faith in God. Years later, as each went through terminal illness, it was this faith that enabled them to endure and encourage others.

Today, the memory of my teachers singing continues to encourage me to keep going in my trials. To me, they’re a few of the many inspiring stories of people who lived by faith. They’re a reminder of how we can follow the author’s call in Hebrews 12:2-3 to fix our eyes on Jesus who “for the joy set before him . . . endured the cross” (v. 2).

When trials—from persecution or life’s challenges—make it hard to keep going, we have the example of those who took God at His word and trusted in His promises. We can “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (v. 1), remembering that Jesus—and those who have gone before us—was able to endure. The writer urges us to “consider him . . . so that [we] will not grow weary and lose heart” (v. 3).

My teachers, now happy in heaven, would likely say: “The life of faith is worth it. Keep going.” By:  Karen Huang

Reflect & Pray

Who’s inspired you to keep going in your faith journey? How does their example encourage you to endure in times of trial and hardship?

Dear Jesus, help me to keep fixing my eyes on You. When I’m weary and losing heart, thank You for Your example.

For further study, read Going the Distance: Practices to Strengthen Your Faith.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, January 13, 2024

Have You Ever Been Alone with God? (2)

When He was alone…the twelve asked Him about the parable. —Mark 4:10

His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship— when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us. Notice Jesus Christ’s training of the Twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were confused. His disciples constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly explained things to them, but they didn’t understand until after they received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).

As you journey with God, the only thing He intends to be clear is the way He deals with your soul. The sorrows and difficulties in the lives of others will be absolutely confusing to you. We think we understand another person’s struggle until God reveals the same shortcomings in our lives. There are vast areas of stubbornness and ignorance the Holy Spirit has to reveal in each of us, but it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now? Or are we more concerned with our own ideas, friendships, and cares for our bodies? Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with Him.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.  Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1459 R

Bible in a Year: Genesis 31-32; Matthew 9:18-38

Isaiah 50 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE BEST YOU - January 12, 2024

The apostle Paul said, “Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life” (Galatians 6:4-5 MSG).

Before Thomas Merton followed Christ, he followed money, fame, and society. He shocked many of his colleagues when he exchanged it all for the life of a Trappist monk. Many years later a friend visited the monastery and could see no important difference in him. “Tom, he said, “you haven’t changed at all.” “Why should I? Here,” he said, “our duty is to be more like ourselves, not less.”

You know, God never called you to be anyone other than you. But he does call you to be the best you that you can be. The big question is: at your best, who are you?

Isaiah 50

Who Out There Fears God?

1–3  50 God says:

“Can you produce your mother’s divorce papers

proving I got rid of her?

Can you produce a receipt

proving I sold you?

Of course you can’t.

It’s your sins that put you here,

your wrongs that got you shipped out.

So why didn’t anyone come when I knocked?

Why didn’t anyone answer when I called?

Do you think I’ve forgotten how to help?

Am I so decrepit that I can’t deliver?

I’m as powerful as ever,

and can reverse what I once did:

I can dry up the sea with a word,

turn river water into desert sand,

And leave the fish stinking in the sun,

stranded on dry land …

Turn all the lights out in the sky

and pull down the curtain.”

4–9  The Master, God, has given me

a well-taught tongue,

So I know how to encourage tired people.

He wakes me up in the morning,

Wakes me up, opens my ears

to listen as one ready to take orders.

The Master, God, opened my ears,

and I didn’t go back to sleep,

didn’t pull the covers back over my head.

I followed orders,

stood there and took it while they beat me,

held steady while they pulled out my beard,

Didn’t dodge their insults,

faced them as they spit in my face.

And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me,

so I’m not disgraced.

Therefore I set my face like flint,

confident that I’ll never regret this.

My champion is right here.

Let’s take our stand together!

Who dares bring suit against me?

Let him try!

Look! the Master, God, is right here.

Who would dare call me guilty?

Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare

socks and shirts, fodder for moths!

10–11  Who out there fears God,

actually listens to the voice of his servant?

For anyone out there who doesn’t know where you’re going,

anyone groping in the dark,

Here’s what: Trust in God.

Lean on your God!

But if all you’re after is making trouble,

playing with fire,

Go ahead and see where it gets you.

Set your fires, stir people up, blow on the flames,

But don’t expect me to just stand there and watch.

I’ll hold your feet to those flames.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, January 12, 2024

Today's Scripture

Genesis 39:19–23

When his master heard his wife’s story, telling him, “These are the things your slave did to me,” he was furious. Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the jail where the king’s prisoners were locked up. But there in jail God was still with Joseph: He reached out in kindness to him; he put him on good terms with the head jailer. The head jailer put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners—he ended up managing the whole operation. The head jailer gave Joseph free rein, never even checked on him, because God was with him; whatever he did God made sure it worked out for the best.

Insight

In Genesis 39, the word translated “prospered” (v. 2) or “success” (vv. 3, 23) is the Hebrew word tsalakh. In Genesis 24, it’s used in connection with the mission of Abraham’s “senior servant” to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac (vv. 21, 40, 42). Elsewhere in Scripture, “success” is associated with obedience to the Scriptures. After the mantle of leadership had been transferred from Moses to Joshua, God told Joshua that he’d be “prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8) when he obeyed God’s law. In Psalm 1, the person who delights in the words of God “is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers” (v. 3). The success of God’s servants is based on God’s provision—His presence and His strength to obey Him. By: Arthur Jackson

God’s Worker

The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. Genesis 39:23

In a refugee camp in the Middle East, when Reza received a Bible, he came to know and believe in Jesus. His first prayer in Christ’s name was, “Use me as your worker.” Later, after he left the camp, God answered that prayer when he unexpectedly secured a job with a relief agency, returning to the camp to serve the people he knew and loved. He set up sports clubs, language classes, and legal advice—“anything that can give people hope.” He sees these programs as a way to serve others and to share God’s wisdom and love.

When reading his Bible, Reza felt an instant connection with the story of Joseph from Genesis. He noticed how God used Joseph to further His work while he was in prison. Because God was with Joseph, He showed him kindness and granted him favor. The prison warden put Joseph in charge and didn’t have to pay attention to matters there because God gave Joseph “success in whatever he did” (Genesis 39:23).

God promises to be with us too. Whether we’re facing imprisonment—literal or figurative—hardship, displacement, heartache, or sorrow, we can trust that He’ll never leave us. Just as He enabled Reza to serve those in the camp and Joseph to run the prison, He’ll stay close to us always. By:  Amy Boucher Pye

Reflect & Pray

When have you experienced God’s redeeming action, such as Reza and Joseph did? How does Joseph’s story help you to trust Him more?

Saving God, You never leave me, even when I face the hardest of circumstances. Please give me hope and eyes to see Your work in my life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, January 12, 2024

Have You Ever Been Alone with God? (1)

When they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples. —Mark 4:34

Our Solitude with Him. Jesus doesn’t take us aside and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we are able to understand them. The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work— so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We don’t even recognize the envy, laziness, or pride within us when we see it. But Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage?

We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves. That is always the last bit of pride to go. The only One who understands us is God. The greatest curse in our spiritual life is pride. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we will never say, “Oh, I’m so unworthy.” We will understand that this goes without saying. But as long as there is any doubt that we are unworthy, God will continue to close us in until He gets us alone. Whenever there is any element of pride or conceit remaining, Jesus can’t teach us anything. He will allow us to experience heartbreak or the disappointment we feel when our intellectual pride is wounded. He will reveal numerous misplaced affections or desires— things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. Many things are shown to us, often without effect. But when God gets us alone over them, they will be clear.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L

Bible in a Year: Genesis 29-30; Matthew 9:1-17

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, January 12, 2024 (not posted yet)

Leaky People - #7046

Monday, January 13, 2014

For many years I was kind of an old fashioned sort of guy in shaving. You know, I wasn't going to have any of those electric shavers for me. I've sort of succumbed now. But for many years I shaved, well, what I thought was like real men. Which meant cooking my beard with hot water first. And that required filling that sink with hot water; as hot as I could stand it. Now, in order for that to happen, the sink has to be able to hold water for a few minutes. And you know what I've noticed traveling around? They don't all do it. I can get them all full; I just couldn't keep them all full. So I'd close the drain, but they just didn't all hold water. I have to keep filling the sink, filling the sink because it leaked.

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

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 5:17-18. Here's the real secret of spiritual power. "Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, (Now listen to these words.) be filled with the Spirit." Now, those words cover one of the most powerful possibilities in the Bible. When you trust Jesus, God - the Holy Spirit - moves into your body. It becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 6. He brings with Him all the power of God right into your body.

The question isn't a believer getting the Holy Spirit; it's how much of you the Holy Spirit is getting. You live supernaturally when you're filled with the Spirit. Now the Greek word means to be saturated, to be controlled by, to be taken over by the Holy Spirit. It's a command here, "be filled with the Spirit."

If you read it in English, you might conclude that you just show up once at the Holy Spirit pump and get your lifetime fill-up. "There, I've been filled with the Spirit." But the Greek is what they call a progressive tense verb, "Be filled with the Spirit over and over again. Keep on being filled with the Spirit." It's not a once-and-for-all spiritual zap.

Somebody once asked the great evangelist, D. L. Moody, why he kept praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit. He said, "Madam, I leak." Well, we all do! It's like filling those sinks with hot water when I was shaving. I could get them full but I couldn't keep them full. They leak. So a leaky sink requires repeated refilling. Fill it just once and pretty soon it will be empty. A Holy Spirit take-over yesterday does not guarantee one for today. There are so many other things that fill you up in a day's time.

We Western Christians are products of an instant, get-it-now, get-it-fast culture. We want instant money from those machines, instant food from a restaurant, instant cooking from a microwave. We like to get it done. So we want to find a quick and final spiritual experience that we can go on for the rest of our lives. Being filled with the Spirit sounds like a good choice, but we leak like D. L. Moody said. He said, "I need a fresh filling for Boston, then for Philadelphia. When I'm in New York, I need to get a fresh filling for New York."

Well, we need a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit for Wednesday, and for Thursday, and we need another one for Friday, for today's calls, for today's conversations, for today's To Do List, today's challenges and surprises and stress. Keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let each day begin with a sacred rendezvous between you and your God; a time when you identify what else may have taken over; what else you may be filled with. And then repent of it. And then open yourself up to let your Lord again take over your personality, and take over your tongue, and your thoughts and your judgment. To take over your body and your plans.

Just keep on being filled with the Spirit. Remember, we're leaky people, and God - the Holy Spirit - offers free refills so you can have a supernatural day.

Romans 9:1-15 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A BRAND NEW IDEA - January 11, 2024

God made you and broke the mold. Every single baby is a brand new idea from the mind of God. Scan history for your replica; you won’t find it. God tailor-made you. You aren’t one of many bricks in the mason’s pile or one of a dozen bolts in the mechanic’s drawer. You are it!

And if you aren’t you, we don’t get you. The world misses out. You offer a gift to society that no one else brings. When you and I do the most what we do the best for the glory of God, the Bible says that we are “marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body” (Romans 12:5 MSG). You play no small part, because there is no small part to be played. God “shaped each person in turn” (Psalm 33:15 MSG). We need you to be you. And you need to be you.

Romans 9:1-15

God Is Calling His People

1–5  9 At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. It’s an enormous pain deep within me, and I’m never free of it. I’m not exaggerating—Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. It’s the Israelites … If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I’d do it in a minute. They’re my family. I grew up with them. They had everything going for them—family, glory, covenants, revelation, worship, promises, to say nothing of being the race that produced the Messiah, the Christ, who is God over everything, always. Oh, yes!

6–9  Don’t suppose for a moment, though, that God’s Word has malfunctioned in some way or other. The problem goes back a long way. From the outset, not all Israelites of the flesh were Israelites of the spirit. It wasn’t Abraham’s sperm that gave identity here, but God’s promise. Remember how it was put: “Your family will be defined by Isaac”? That means that Israelite identity was never racially determined by sexual transmission, but it was God-determined by promise. Remember that promise, “When I come back next year at this time, Sarah will have a son”?

10–13  And that’s not the only time. To Rebecca, also, a promise was made that took priority over genetics. When she became pregnant by our one-of-a-kind ancestor, Isaac, and her babies were still innocent in the womb—incapable of good or bad—she received a special assurance from God. What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative. God told Rebecca, “The firstborn of your twins will take second place.” Later that was turned into a stark epigram: “I loved Jacob; I hated Esau.”

14–18  Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please. God told Moses, “I’m in charge of mercy. I’m in charge of compassion.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Today's Scripture

John 21:17–24

 Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.”

20–21  Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?”

22–23  Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You—follow me.” That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?”

24  This is the same disciple who was eyewitness to all these things and wrote them down. And we all know that his eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.

Insight

After His resurrection, Jesus remained on earth for forty days before ascending into heaven. During this time, He “proved to [his disciples] in many ways that he was actually alive” (Acts 1:3 nlt). The New Testament records some eleven post-resurrection appearances of Christ. The risen Jesus met with different people for different reasons. He had unfinished business with all His disciples. The Passover weekend was a traumatic one for them, and every disciple had “deserted him” (Matthew 26:56). In fact, Peter had denied knowing Jesus three times (John 18:15-27), but Christ restored him (21:15-19). His disciples needed to be forgiven, restored, reinstated, and recommissioned to do God’s work. By: K. T. Sim

A Simple Request

If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. John 21:22

“Please clean the front room before you go to bed,” I said to one of my daughters. Instantly came the reply, “Why doesn’t she have to do it?”

Such mild resistance was frequent in our home when our girls were young. My response was always the same: “Don’t worry about your sisters; I asked you.”

In John 21, we see this human tendency illustrated among the disciples. Jesus had just restored Peter after he’d denied Him three times (see John 18:15–18, 25–27). Now Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me!” (21:19)—a simple but painful command. Jesus explained that Peter would follow Him to the death (vv. 18–19).

Peter barely had time to comprehend Jesus’ words before he asked about the disciple behind them: “What about him?” (v. 21). Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” Then He said, “You must follow me” (v. 22).

How often we’re like Peter! We wonder about the faith journeys of others and not what God is doing with us. Late in his life, when the death Jesus foretold in John 21 was much closer, Peter elaborated on Christ’s simple command: “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:14–15). That’s enough to keep each of us focused on Jesus and not on those around us. By:  Matt Lucas

Reflect & Pray

How are you tempted to compare your faith walk with others? How will you keep your focus on Jesus today?

Heavenly Father, please continue to conform me into the image of Your Son. 

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, January 11, 2024

What My Obedience to God Costs Other People

As they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon…, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. —Luke 23:26

If we obey God, it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the pain begins. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything— it is a delight. But to those who do not love Him, our obedience does cost a great deal. If we obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset. They will ridicule us as if to say, “You call this Christianity?” We could prevent the suffering, but not if we are obedient to God. We must let the cost be paid.

When our obedience begins to cost others, our human pride entrenches itself and we say, “I will never accept anything from anyone.” But we must, or disobey God. We have no right to think that the type of relationships we have with others should be any different from those the Lord Himself had (see Luke 8:1-3).

A lack of progress in our spiritual life results when we try to bear all the costs ourselves. And actually, we cannot. Because we are so involved in the universal purposes of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to Him. Will we remain faithful in our obedience to God and be willing to suffer the humiliation of refusing to be independent? Or will we do just the opposite and say, “I will not cause other people to suffer”? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but it will grieve our Lord. If, however, we obey God, He will care for those who have suffered the consequences of our obedience. We must simply obey and leave all the consequences with Him.

Beware of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a condition of your obedience to Him.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

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

Bible in a Year: Genesis 27-28; Matthew 8:18-34

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Using Your Winter To Win Your Battles - #9654

King George and his army must have had a really good laugh. George Washington and his Continental Army had been whipped in battle after battle in their campaign to become independent from Britain. British troops had driven the Americans out of New York City, across the Hudson River, across New Jersey, and finally into Pennsylvania. Then came the winter of 1777, at a place outside of Philadelphia called Valley Forge. Washington's troops faced not only a physical winter there, but an emotional winter. Discouragement and defeat may have been their worst enemies. But General Washington wasn't about to let those enemies win. He fought back by immediately deploying his soldiers to fortify their camp. Then the drills began. A veteran European military officer began to drill those soldiers every day, teaching them a single set of maneuvers rather than the multiple approaches that had just created confusion in the past battles. That winter, they were learning one way of doing things while Washington worked on getting more recruits and building his army into a real fighting force. Many historians believe that the outcome of America's battle for independence was actually decided at Valley Forge more than any battle - because there was an army that came out of Valley Forge to stun the British with major victories. One army went into the winter at Valley Forge - divided, discouraged, demoralized. Another army emerged from that winter. They were unified, they were fortified, they were confident because of what they had done with their winter.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Using Your Winter To Win Your Battles."

In many ways, the outcome of your battles may be decided, not on the battlefield alone, but in how you use your winter. And you may be in one of those cold, bleak times right now. You could succumb to your fears and your feelings and just surrender. Or you could pull a spiritual "Valley Forge." You could use your winter to get stronger, more together, more focused on what you need to do to win.

In some ways, Jesus' disciples expected their winter to begin with His announced departure to heaven. The One who had called them to be with Him was now leaving them and entrusting to them the work He had started. In Luke 24, Jesus tells them to tell the world about Him and then, "while He was blessing them, He left them and was taken up into heaven." In a way, their winter had begun, as it often does when you lose someone you love. But they knew what to do with their winter! In our word for today from the Word of God taken from Acts 1 and 2, "they all joined together constantly in prayer." Then they got their team of twelve back to full strength by replacing Judas with another disciple. And, "When the day of Pentecost came" - that's the day God sent His Holy Spirit - "they were all together in one place...and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit." At that point, they exploded on the city of Jerusalem with the Gospel that would, one day, start spreading around the world.

But they had to use their winter to get together, to get stronger, and to get closer to God. You need to handle your winter that way. Don't just sit there worrying or feeling sorry for yourself or wallowing in your emotions. Take action to get strong. Spend extra time with God right now. Strengthen your relationship with your family and your coworkers. Think through what you need to stop doing and what you need to start doing to focus on what really matters. And prayerfully plan for a future, right there in the middle of your valley, even when the future looks very uncertain. While the bombs were falling on London during World War II, Winston Churchill was in his underground bunker - not worrying about the bombs, but actually planning the invasion of Germany!

Discouragement and fear and drifting from God - those are your greatest enemies, not what faces you on your battlefield. This winter is not dead time or despair time. It's get ready time. What you do with your winter will decide whether you win or lose!

Isaiah 49, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: READ YOUR LIFE BACKWARD - January 10, 2024

Are you living in your sweet spot? Doing what you do well, what you’ve always loved to do? That last question trips up a lot of folks. God wouldn’t let me do what I like to do, would he? Yes, he would. “God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13 NCV). “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 NIV).

Your Father is too gracious to assign you to a life of misery. So see your desires as gifts to heed rather than longings to suppress. What have you always done well and loved to do? Read your life backward. Re-relish your moments of success and satisfaction. In the merger of the two, you will find your uniqueness!

Isaiah 49

A Light for the Nations

1–3  49 Listen, far-flung islands,

pay attention, faraway people:

God put me to work from the day I was born.

The moment I entered the world he named me.

He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.

He kept his hand on me to protect me.

He made me his straight arrow

and hid me in his quiver.

He said to me, “You’re my dear servant,

Israel, through whom I’ll shine.”

4  But I said, “I’ve worked for nothing.

I’ve nothing to show for a life of hard work.

Nevertheless, I’ll let God have the last word.

I’ll let him pronounce his verdict.”

5–6  “And now,” God says,

this God who took me in hand

from the moment of birth to be his servant,

To bring Jacob back home to him,

to set a reunion for Israel—

What an honor for me in God’s eyes!

That God should be my strength!

He says, “But that’s not a big enough job for my servant—

just to recover the tribes of Jacob,

merely to round up the strays of Israel.

I’m setting you up as a light for the nations

so that my salvation becomes global!”

7  God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel,

says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations,

slave labor to the ruling class:

“Kings will see, get to their feet—the princes, too—

and then fall on their faces in homage

Because of God, who has faithfully kept his word,

The Holy of Israel, who has chosen you.”

8–12  God also says:

“When the time’s ripe, I answer you.

When victory’s due, I help you.

I form you and use you

to reconnect the people with me,

To put the land in order,

to resettle families on the ruined properties.

I tell prisoners, ‘Come on out. You’re free!’

and those huddled in fear, ‘It’s all right. It’s safe now.’

There’ll be foodstands along all the roads,

picnics on all the hills—

Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty,

shade from the sun, shelter from the wind,

For the Compassionate One guides them,

takes them to the best springs.

I’ll make all my mountains into roads,

turn them into a superhighway.

Look: These coming from far countries,

and those, out of the north,

These streaming in from the west,

and those from all the way down the Nile!”

13  Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead!

Mountains, send up cheers!

God has comforted his people.

He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people.

14  But Zion said, “I don’t get it. God has left me.

My Master has forgotten I even exist.”

15–18  “Can a mother forget the infant at her breast,

walk away from the baby she bore?

But even if mothers forget,

I’d never forget you—never.

Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands.

The walls you’re rebuilding are never out of my sight.

Your builders are faster than your wreckers.

The demolition crews are gone for good.

Look up, look around, look well!

See them all gathering, coming to you?

As sure as I am the living God”—God’s Decree—

“you’re going to put them on like so much jewelry,

you’re going to use them to dress up like a bride.

19–21  “And your ruined land?

Your devastated, decimated land?

Filled with more people than you know what to do with!

And your barbarian enemies, a fading memory.

The children born in your exile will be saying,

‘It’s getting too crowded here. I need more room.’

And you’ll say to yourself,

‘Where on earth did these children come from?

I lost everything, had nothing, was exiled and penniless.

So who reared these children?

How did these children get here?’ ”

22–23  The Master, God, says:

“Look! I signal to the nations,

I raise my flag to summon the people.

Here they’ll come: women carrying your little boys in their arms,

men carrying your little girls on their shoulders.

Kings will be your babysitters,

princesses will be your nursemaids.

They’ll offer to do all your drudge work—

scrub your floors, do your laundry.

You’ll know then that I am God.

No one who hopes in me ever regrets it.”

24–26  Can plunder be retrieved from a giant,

prisoners of war gotten back from a tyrant?

But God says, “Even if a giant grips the plunder

and a tyrant holds my people prisoner,

I’m the one who’s on your side,

defending your cause, rescuing your children.

And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves,

killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction.

Then everyone will know that I, God,

have saved you—I, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Today's Scripture

Nehemiah 1:4–11

 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God-of-Heaven.

5–6  I said, “God, God-of-Heaven, the great and awesome God, loyal to his covenant and faithful to those who love him and obey his commands: Look at me, listen to me. Pay attention to this prayer of your servant that I’m praying day and night in intercession for your servants, the People of Israel, confessing the sins of the People of Israel. And I’m including myself, I and my ancestors, among those who have sinned against you.

7–9  “We’ve treated you like dirt: We haven’t done what you told us, haven’t followed your commands, and haven’t respected the decisions you gave to Moses your servant. All the same, remember the warning you posted to your servant Moses: ‘If you betray me, I’ll scatter you to the four winds, but if you come back to me and do what I tell you, I’ll gather up all these scattered peoples from wherever they ended up and put them back in the place I chose to mark with my Name.’

10–11  “Well, there they are—your servants, your people whom you so powerfully and impressively redeemed. O Master, listen to me, listen to your servant’s prayer—and yes, to all your servants who delight in honoring you—and make me successful today so that I get what I want from the king.”

I was cupbearer to the king.

Insight

In response to hearing about the struggles of the exiles who’d returned to Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1-3), Nehemiah prays a prayer of repentance for both his own sin and that of his nation (vv. 5-11). In his prayer, he finds hope in God’s past promises to restore His repentant people. In verses 8-9, the writer lifts up God’s promise to return repentant exiles to their land where they’d flourish once more if they’d fully commit to serving God (see Deuteronomy 30:1-4, 9-10).

Learn about the work God can do in us when we pray. By: Monica La Rose

A Call to Prayer

I sat down and wept. . . . I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1:4

Abraham Lincoln confided to a friend, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” In the horrific years of the American Civil War, President Lincoln not only spent time in fervent prayer but also called the country to join him. In 1861, he proclaimed a “day of humiliation, prayer and fasting.” And he did so again in 1863, stating, “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God: to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon.”

After the Israelites had been captives in Babylon for seventy years, King Cyrus decreed that any Israelite who wanted to return to Jerusalem could return. When Nehemiah, an Israelite (Nehemiah 1:6) and cupbearer to the king of Babylon (v. 11), learned that those who had returned were “in great trouble and disgrace” (v. 3), he “sat down and wept” and spent days mourning, fasting and praying (v. 4). He wrestled in prayer for his nation (vv. 5–11). And later, he too called his people to fast and pray (9:1–37).

Centuries later, in the days of the Roman Empire, the apostle Paul similarly urged his readers to pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1–2). Our God still hears our prayers about matters that affect the lives of others. By:  Alyson Kieda

Reflect & Pray

Why do you think God calls His people to pray for everyone? Who beyond your own circle can you pray for?

Dear Father, we’re in trouble. Please help and heal us.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

The Opened Sight

I now send you, to open their eyes…that they may receive forgiveness of sins… —Acts 26:17-18

This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.

God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “…that they may receive forgiveness of sins….” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion— only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.

This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “…an inheritance among those who are sanctified….” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Beware of bartering the Word of God for a more suitable conception of your own.  Disciples Indeed, 386 R

Bible in a Year: Genesis 25-26; Matthew 8:1-17

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Giving That Counts - And Doesn't - #9653

I guess it started when the kids were growing up. You know, it says in the Dad's Job Description, "Must have quarters at all times!" Even now when I travel I still try to carry some quarters, even though we don't need them as often anymore. But I would always make sure that I had enough ones and even fives. You never know when you're going to need a vending machine. Not need; actually want a vending machine. I'm in a hotel, I'm working late and I want a snack or I want a cold drink. So I go through the familiar ritual: put the dollar bill in, then the quarters, hit the selection button, and something good comes out. At least it had better! I mean, it's pretty annoying if you put your money in there and nothing comes out. I probably wouldn't put any more money in that machine, would you?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Giving That Counts - And Doesn't."

I read a report about the giving of American Christians, and it was very revealing. The survey discovered that American Christians expect to get something back when they give. Oh, vending machine! For example, the survey found that they will give to their church, but they expect to get it back in things like new drapes, new hymn books, a better choir, or a better parking lot. Put something in and get something out. And don't put any money into a machine that doesn't give you anything back, right? The researchers have a name for this - "consumer giving." Or you could call it "vending machine" giving.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 12:41. "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty put in everything - all she had to live on.'"

So what kind of giving did Jesus honor? Sacrificial giving. He's far more interested in the size of the sacrifice than the size of the gift. And what kind of giving did Jesus himself model? Sacrificial giving. Aren't you glad Jesus wasn't a consumer giver? We'd all still be headed for eternal death. But He gave everything with no thought of return. So maybe consumer giving is an oxymoron.

Someone might say, "Okay, so we like to give to things where we get something back or it does something for us. So what?" Well, maybe that's why it's taking missionaries two or three years to get their support raised while people keep dying on the mission field that they're ready to go to. Maybe it's why the missionary conference in a church is fighting for its life on the church calendar. Maybe it's one reason why the American missionary force in the world continues to drop. Some have said it's been at its lowest point since WWII. After all, what's in it for me to give to some missionary out there?

Is it any wonder that so many ministries are struggling financially; especially those who are called to evangelism? After all, the lost are those people; they're not my people. But those people are why Jesus came. In many cases, Satan's attempt to stop Jesus' warriors has failed. He couldn't get to them. And so have his attempts to stop their attacks on Satan's kingdom. But when all else fails, stop their supplies. Attack the supply lines, because if the supply lines don't come through, the guys on the front lines can't fight. A soldier without bullets cannot wage war.

Isn't it time for each of us to examine our own priorities before the Lord to whom we will answer for our stewardship? Are we giving to get? The holy work of Jesus Christ is not a vending machine. It's an eternal investment. It may not pay off now, but it will reap incalculable dividends forever.

Isaiah 48 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 

Max Lucado Daily: SET APART FOR A SPECIAL WORK - January 9, 2024

“The child is the father of the man,” wrote William Wordsworth. Want direction for the future? Then read your life backward.

Job placement experts asked over seventy thousand people this question: “What things have you done in life that you enjoyed doing and believe you did well?” In every case people reverted to the same pattern of functioning. Or to put it succinctly, our past presents our future.

The Bible says, “It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives helping others” (Ephesians 2:10 TLB). You are heaven’s custom design. What God said about Jeremiah, he said about you. “Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work” (Jeremiah 1:5 NCV).

Isaiah 48

Tested in the Furnace of Affliction

1–11  48 “And now listen to this, family of Jacob,

you who are called by the name Israel:

Who got you started in the loins of Judah,

you who use God’s name to back up your promises

and pray to the God of Israel?

But do you mean it?

Do you live like it?

You claim to be citizens of the Holy City;

you act as though you lean on the God of Israel,

named God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

For a long time now, I’ve let you in on the way I work:

I told you what I was going to do beforehand,

then I did it and it was done, and that’s that.

I know you’re a bunch of hardheads,

obstinate and flint-faced,

So I got a running start and began telling you

what was going on before it even happened.

That is why you can’t say,

‘My god-idol did this.’

‘My favorite god-carving commanded this.’

You have all this evidence

confirmed by your own eyes and ears.

Shouldn’t you be talking about it?

And that was just the beginning.

I have a lot more to tell you,

things you never knew existed.

This isn’t a variation on the same old thing.

This is new, brand-new,

something you’d never guess or dream up.

When you hear this you won’t be able to say,

‘I knew that all along.’

You’ve never been good listeners to me.

You have a history of ignoring me,

A sorry track record of fickle attachments—

rebels from the womb.

But out of the sheer goodness of my heart,

because of who I am,

I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper.

I don’t wash my hands of you.

Do you see what I’ve done?

I’ve refined you, but not without fire.

I’ve tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction.

Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do.

I have my reputation to keep up.

I’m not playing second fiddle to either gods or people.

12–13  “Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel—

I’m the One who named you!

I’m the One.

I got things started and, yes, I’ll wrap them up.

Earth is my work, hand-made.

And the skies—I made them, too, horizon to horizon.

When I speak, they’re on their feet, at attention.

14–16  “Come everybody, gather around, listen:

Who among the gods has delivered the news?

I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I’m using him

to do what I want with Babylon.

I, yes I, have spoken. I’ve called him.

I’ve brought him here. He’ll be successful.

Come close, listen carefully:

I’ve never kept secrets from you.

I’ve always been present with you.”

Your Progeny, Like Grains of Sand

16–19  And now, the Master, God, sends me and his Spirit

with this Message from God,

your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel:

“I am God, your God,

who teaches you how to live right and well.

I show you what to do, where to go.

If you had listened all along to what I told you,

your life would have flowed full like a river,

blessings rolling in like waves from the sea.

Children and grandchildren are like sand,

your progeny like grains of sand.

There would be no end of them,

no danger of losing touch with me.”

20  Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians!

Shout the news. Broadcast it.

Let the world know, the whole world.

Tell them, “God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!”

21  They weren’t thirsty when he led them through the deserts.

He made water pour out of the rock;

he split the rock and the water gushed.

22  “There is no peace,” says God, “for the wicked.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, January 09, 2024

Today's Scripture

Jeremiah 31:1–6

“And when that happens”—God’s Decree—

“it will be plain as the sun at high noon:

I’ll be the God of every man, woman, and child in Israel

and they shall be my very own people.”

2–6  This is the way God put it:

“They found grace out in the desert,

these people who survived the killing.

Israel, out looking for a place to rest,

met God out looking for them!”

God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will.

Expect love, love, and more love!

And so now I’ll start over with you and build you up again,

dear virgin Israel.

You’ll resume your singing,

grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.

You’ll go back to your old work of planting vineyards

on the Samaritan hillsides,

And sit back and enjoy the fruit—

oh, how you’ll enjoy those harvests!

The time’s coming when watchmen will call out

from the hilltops of Ephraim:

‘On your feet! Let’s go to Zion,

go to meet our God!’ ”

Insight

For the first twenty-nine chapters of the book of Jeremiah, the prophet warned the people of Judah of God’s punishment—the destruction of Jerusalem and their seventy-year exile to Babylon—due to their chronic unfaithfulness (see 1:14-16; 5:15-19; 6:22-23; 25:9-11). But then Jeremiah speaks words of comfort, encouragement, hope, and restoration. He prophesied of God’s people coming back to the promised land and to God (chs. 30-31). God promised: “The days are coming . . . when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess” (30:3). He would bring them back from exile (vv. 8-17), restore their land (vv. 18-24), and restore the people to Himself (31:1-6). “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people” (v. 1). By: K. T. Sim

Love Beyond Counting

I have loved you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Those words from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese are among the best-known poetry in the English language. She wrote them to Robert Browning before they were married, and he was so moved that he encouraged her to publish her entire collection of poems. But because the language of the sonnets was very tender, out of a desire for personal privacy Barrett published them as if they were translations from a Portuguese writer.

Sometimes we can feel awkward when we openly express affection for others. But the Bible, by contrast, doesn’t hold back on its presentation of God’s love. Jeremiah recounted God’s affection for His people with these tender words: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3). Even though His people had turned from Him, God promised to restore them and personally draw them near. “I will come to give rest to Israel,” He told them (v. 2).

Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s restorative love, giving peace and rest to any who turn to Him.  From the manger to the cross to the empty tomb, He’s the personification of God’s desire to call a wayward world to Himself. Read the Bible cover to cover and you’ll “count the ways” of God’s love over and over; but eternal as they are, you’ll never come to their end. By:  James Banks

Reflect & Pray

What are some of the ways God has loved you? How can you return His love today?

Thank You for loving me so fully and personally, Jesus! Help me to love You with my life today.

Learn more about the grand story of the Bible.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, January 09, 2024

Prayerful Inner-Searching

May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless… —1 Thessalonians 5:23

“Your whole spirit….” The great, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is in the deep recesses of our being which we cannot reach. Read Psalm 139. The psalmist implies— “O Lord, You are the God of the early mornings, the God of the late nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea. But, my God, my soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature. You who are the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot discover, dreams I cannot realize. My God, search me.”

Do we believe that God can fortify and protect our thought processes far beyond where we can go? “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). If this verse means cleansing only on our conscious level, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been dulled by sin will say that he is not even conscious of it. But the cleansing from sin we experience will reach to the heights and depths of our spirit if we will “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). The same Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirit. It is only when we are protected by God with the miraculous sacredness of the Holy Spirit that our spirit, soul, and body can be preserved in pure uprightness until the coming of Jesus-no longer condemned in God’s sight.

We should more frequently allow our minds to meditate on these great, massive truths of God.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence.  Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

Bible in a Year: Genesis 23-24; Matthew 7

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, January 09, 2024

How to Make a Woman Feel Loved - #9652

Men and women are different. Aren't you glad you're listening today? Now, that is not exactly news worth tuning in for, but trying to understand those differences, oh we could talk about that for a long time. For example, one of those differences shows up when I can remember my wife and I were driving long distances across this country. I can sum up the difference pretty succinctly. She wanted to stop and see things; I wanted to get there! My honey would see signs for an interesting attraction or the kind of store she liked and she'd suggest we stop and check it out. Not me. Hey, we have a destination. We've got to get to it girl! Who wants to waste time along the way? Guy-think!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Make a Woman Feel Loved."

It took me a little while being married before I got it figured out, but I found out what is the number one way to make most women feel loved. Listen to her - not just her words, but her heart. I made a promise at my wedding that God's voice would always be the most important in heaven and my wife's voice the most important on earth. Easy to say. Harder to do, especially with so many voices to listen to. The woman who's trusted her life to me ought to be the most important voice in my life, right?

Many of us are familiar with God's challenging instructions to husbands in Ephesians 5:25, which happens to be our word for today from the Word of God. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." That's an incredibly high standard for us, guys. Love with the same kind of self-sacrificing love that Jesus showed for us when He laid down His life for us.

Now, if that meant sacrificing our life physically to save our wife's life, I think most of us would probably do that. But the kind of sacrifice this turns out to be is the daily sacrifice of putting our needs and our agenda on hold to focus on hers. And we'll never know what she needs or wants, or why she's hurting, if we don't take time to listen. And time is probably what you have the least of. That's why taking time to listen is where Christlike love begins in a marriage.

Because (and now I'm asking for it) women often take considerably longer than men to say it! Men are saying, "Amen!" Women are saying, "So what?" Now we're back to how my wife and I do a trip. I just wanted the bottom line - getting to the destination as soon as possible. That's how men like to communicate - get to the point. Wives, mine included, like most women, want to enjoy the process; explore what's between here and the destination. Women are wired by God to care about the details (and thank God they are), many of which a man would blow right by and sometimes miss something very important.

When a woman is telling a story, bringing in what seems to be tangents, including a lot of detail, a man's "destination brain" is saying, "Where is this going?" A woman's heart, which believes the journey is important, not just the bottom line, wants you to love her enough to go on the journey with her - to see the things between here and the destination. Many times if a woman jumped to the bottom line like we wanted her to, we would jump to all kinds of wrong conclusions because we didn't take the time to understand how she got there. A quick word to the ladies: it shows love on your part whenever you can fast-forward to the bottom line.

So, to some guy who's tuned in today, do you love her enough to make the sacrifices to listen to her with loving patience? That's love in the language of the woman you love. It's the Jesus-way of loving - sacrificing the way you'd like it to be to benefit someone you love. It's more than listening. It's opening your heart to her heart.

Isaiah 47, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 

Max Lucado Daily: FROM NOTHING INTO SOMETHING - January 8, 2024

You’re more than statistical chance, a marriage of heredity and society. Thanks to God, you have been “sculpted from nothing into something” (Psalm 139:15 MSG). He made you you-nique.

Secular thinking, as a whole, doesn’t buy this. Society simply says, “You can be anything you want to be.” But can you? God never prefabs or mass-produces people. “I make all things new,” he declares (Revelation 21:5 NKJV). So, you can do something no one else can do in a fashion no one else can do it. “Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that” (Galatians 6:4 MSG).

When you do the most what you do the best, you put a smile on God’s face. And what could be better than that?

Isaiah 47-

The Party’s Over

1–3  47 “Get off your high horse and sit in the dirt,

virgin daughter of Babylon.

No more throne for you—sit on the ground,

daughter of the Chaldeans.

Nobody will be calling you ‘charming’

and ‘alluring’ anymore. Get used to it.

Get a job, any old job:

Clean gutters, scrub toilets.

Hock your gowns and scarves,

put on overalls—the party’s over.

Your nude body will be on public display,

exposed to vulgar taunts.

It’s vengeance time, and I’m taking vengeance.

No one gets let off the hook.”

You’re Acting Like the Center of the Universe

4–13  Our Redeemer speaks,

named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, The Holy of Israel:

“Shut up and get out of the way,

daughter of Chaldeans.

You’ll no longer be called

‘First Lady of the Kingdoms.’

I was fed up with my people,

thoroughly disgusted with my progeny.

I turned them over to you,

but you had no compassion.

You put old men and women

to cruel, hard labor.

You said, ‘I’m the First Lady.

I’ll always be the pampered darling.’

You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart,

never gave tomorrow a thought.

Well, start thinking, playgirl.

You’re acting like the center of the universe,

Smugly saying to yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.

I’ll never be a widow, I’ll never lose my children.’

Those two things are going to hit you both at once,

suddenly, on the same day:

Spouse and children gone, a total loss,

despite your many enchantments and charms.

You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life,

saying, ‘No one sees me.’

You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out.

What delusion!

Smugly telling yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.’

Ruin descends—

you can’t charm it away.

Disaster strikes—

you can’t cast it off with spells.

Catastrophe, sudden and total—

and you’re totally at sea, totally bewildered!

But don’t give up. From your great repertoire

of enchantments there must be one you haven’t yet tried.

You’ve been at this a long time.

Surely something will work.

I know you’re exhausted trying out remedies,

but don’t give up.

Call in the astrologers and stargazers.

They’re good at this. Surely they can work up something!

14–15  “Fat chance. You’d be grasping at straws

that are already in the fire,

A fire that is even now raging.

Your ‘experts’ are in it and won’t get out.

It’s not a fire for cooking venison stew,

not a fire to warm you on a winter night!

That’s the fate of your friends in sorcery, your magician buddies

you’ve been in cahoots with all your life.

They reel, confused, bumping into one another.

None of them bother to help you.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, January 08, 2024

Today's Scripture

Romans 5:6–8

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.

Insight

What does Paul mean when he says, “at just the right time” (Romans 5:6)? Elsewhere, he writes, “When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Galatians 4:4-5). The timing of Jesus’ arrival on earth was perfectly fitted to God’s plan. This plan unfolded in ways we couldn’t have imagined, yet everything is just as He ordained it. That’s good news! Mark says in his gospel account, “It is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you’ ” (Mark 1:2). This messenger was John the Baptist, the prophesied forerunner to Jesus’ ministry (vv. 2-3; see Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1). His mission complete, John was imprisoned. Only then did Christ announce, “The time has come . . . . The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). 

By: Tim Gustafson

Willing Savior

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

While driving late at night, Nicholas saw a house on fire. He parked in the driveway, rushed into the burning home, and led four children to safety. When the teenage babysitter realized one of the siblings was still inside, she told Nicholas. Without hesitation, he reentered the inferno. Trapped on the second floor with the six-year-old girl, Nicholas broke a window. He jumped to safety with the child in his arms, just as emergency teams arrived at the scene. Choosing concern for others over himself, he rescued all the children.

Nicholas demonstrated heroism by his willingness to sacrifice his safety for the sake of others. This powerful act of love reflects the kind of sacrificial love shown by another willing rescuer who gave His life to deliver us from sin and death—Jesus. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). The apostle Paul emphasized that Jesus—fully God in the flesh and fully man—chose to lay His life down and pay the price for our sins, a price we could never pay on our own. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8).

As we thank and trust Jesus, our willing Savior, He can empower us to love others sacrificially with our words and actions. By:  Xochitl Dixon

Reflect & Pray

How do you feel when you consider the price Jesus willingly paid because He loves you? How can you put the needs of others before yourself this week?

Dear Jesus, help me trust in Your provision as I place others first today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, January 08, 2024

Is My Sacrifice Living?

Abraham built an altar…; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar… —Genesis 22:9

This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not— “Lord, I am ready to go with You…to death” (Luke 22:33). But— “I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God.”

We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.

It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice”— to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12:1). This is what is acceptable to God.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but One who stands in the thick of the whole thing with man.  Disciples Indeed, 388 L

Bible in a Year: Genesis 20-22; Matthew 6:19-34

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, January 08, 2024

Just Beyond Your Last Heartbeat - #9651

Our daughter was driving through town with our four-year-old grandson in the back seat. As she passed a local senior housing facility, she said, "Honey, that's where my grandfather lived until he died." At that point, our four-year-old jumped in with a respectful correction of his Mommy's choice of words. "Until Jesus called him home," he said. There was a pause - and then our grandson added - "Someday Jesus will call me home, too."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Just Beyond Your Last Heartbeat."

Not bad for a four-year-old! I'm sounding like his grandfather now. But that little guy actually has this death thing figured out better than a lot of us grownup people do, because we don't decide when it's over. God does. And the thing you want to have happen on the day you take your last breath is for Jesus to call you home to heaven. Unfortunately, not everyone's going home. And the alternative is too eternally awful to contemplate.

The Bible makes this clear in 1 John 5:11-12. It's our word for today from the Word of God, and it says that we're all in one of two groups, headed for one of two possible destinations. You are in one of these. It says, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Notice - it doesn't say eternal life is in His religion or His rules or in living right. No, the only One who can get us to heaven is His Son. Why? Because He's the only One who died to pay for all the sin that we have; sin that makes it impossible for us to enter a holy God's heaven. The Bible then continues: "He who has the Son" - that's the Son of God, Jesus - "He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life."

There it is. Either you're totally forgiven or you're still carrying your sin and its penalty. Either you're headed for heaven or you're headed for hell. And Jesus indicated there will be surprises in both places - people that humans would never expect who are going to be in heaven because they pinned all their hopes for spiritual rescue on Jesus. And people in hell who had tons of Christianity but somehow missed Jesus. They never grabbed Him as if He were their only hope.

The truth is that your last call could come any time. Speaking to God in Psalm 139:16, King David says, "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be."

You're not going to die until your work is done. And you can't stay one day longer than when your work is done. And God decides when that is. For a 17-year-old girl who attended a youth event I spoke at, the call actually came in a head-on collision on the way home. And because she had put her trust in Jesus that very night, when she got the call, she was called home, because "He who has the Son has life."

You can't postpone God's call. And you can't be ready for it any other way than to be sure you belong to Jesus Christ, the only One who can remove the sin that will otherwise keep you out of heaven.

You say, "But I'm a good person." Not good enough; not for a perfect God. That's why Jesus came. Why He died. Why He rose again. That's why He's knocking on the door of your heart, maybe this very day. He wants you in heaven with Him forever. He doesn't want to lose you! But you have to choose that - by consciously and totally giving yourself to Him.

Have you ever really done that? If you're not sure you did, you probably didn't. Let this be the day you finally say, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I accept your death on the cross as being for my sin. I turn from running my own life. You are my only hope." If you want to be sure you've begun a relationship with Jesus, and you want to get this settled today, go to our website? It will help, I know it will. It's ANewStory.com.

You're another day closer to the day the call will come. It just doesn't make sense to risk one more day without Jesus does it? He's calling you right now to give you to Him, so that one day, when the last call comes, He can call you home.

Romans 8:22-39, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Sacred Delight

He should have been miserable.  He should have been bitter. He had every right to be a pot of boiling anger. But he wasn't. Jesus embodied a stubborn joy!

What is this stubborn joy?  This bird that sings while it's still dark?  What is the source of this peace that defies pain? I call it sacred delight. What is sacred is God's!  And this joy is God's.

Sacred delight is good news coming through the back door of your heart.  It's the too-good-to-be-true coming true. It's having God as your lawyer, your dad, your biggest fan, and your best friend.  It's hope where you least expected it-a flower in life's sidewalk.

It is sacred because only God can grant it. It is a delight because it thrills. It can't be stolen.  It can't be predicted. It is God's sacred delight!

The Applause of Heaven

Romans 8:22-39

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

26–28  Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

29–30  God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

31–39  So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.

We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, January 06, 2024

Today's Scripture

Matthew 2:9–13

Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!

11  They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.

12  In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country.

13  After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.”

Insight

The word Magi (Matthew 2:1) is translated “wise men” in many Bible versions. Because these men followed a star in search of a king, we know they were also astrologers. Coming from the East, they could’ve originated from the Arabian Desert, Babylon, or Persia. They’re first mentioned in 1 Kings 4:30: “[Solomon’s] wisdom exceeded that of all the wise men of the East” (nlt). They could be the astrologers found in the courts of Babylon (Daniel 2:2; 4:6-7). Interestingly, Daniel was placed in charge of them (2:48; 5:11) and could’ve told them about the coming Messiah. For five hundred years, these magi looked forward to this prophecy. These men of great faith—whose main lead was a star in the sky—traveled thousands of miles in search of a Jewish king. As representatives of the gentile world, they saw God wrapped in human clothes and “bowed down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11). By: K. T. Sim

The Meaning of Myrrh

Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2:11

Today is Epiphany, the day which commemorates the event described by the carol “We Three Kings of Orient Are” when gentile wisemen visited the child Jesus. Yet they weren’t kings, they weren’t from the Far East (as Orient formerly meant), and it’s unlikely there were three of them.

There were, however, three gifts, and the carol considers each. When the magi arrived in Bethlehem, “They opened their treasures and presented [Jesus] with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Matthew 2:11). The gifts symbolize Jesus’ mission. Gold represents His role as King. Frankincense, mixed with the incense burned in the sanctuary, speaks of His deity. Myrrh, used to embalm dead bodies, gives us pause.

The fourth verse of the carol says, “Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume / breathes a life of gathering gloom; / sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, / sealed in the stone-cold tomb.” We wouldn’t write such a scene into the story, but God did. Jesus’ death is central to our salvation. Herod even attempted to kill Jesus while He was yet a child (v. 13).

The carol’s last verse weaves the three themes together: “Glorious now behold him arise; / King and God and sacrifice.” This completes the story of Christmas, inspiring our response: “Alleluia, Alleluia, / sounds through the earth and skies.” By:  Tim Gustafson

Reflect & Pray

How do you feel when you ponder the truth that Jesus was born to die for you? How does His resurrection inspire you?

Heavenly Father, may Your Spirit help me live my life in gratitude for Your Son giving His life for me.

For further study, read Jesus or Herod? The Choice of the Magi.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, January 06, 2024

Worship

He moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. —Genesis 12:8

Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.

Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram “pitched his tent” between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time— there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life— worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

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

Bible in a Year: Genesis 16-17; Matthew 5:27-48