Hebrews 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: No Price Too High

A father is the one person in your life who provides for and protects you. That is exactly what God has done! When our oldest daughter, Jenna, was two years old, I lost her in a department store. One minute she was at my side and the next she was gone. I panicked. All of a sudden only one thing mattered-I had to find my daughter. Shopping was forgotten. The list of things I came to get was unimportant. I yelled her name. What people thought did not matter. For a few minutes, every ounce of energy had one goal-to find my lost child. I did, by the way. She was hiding behind some jackets.

No price is too high for a parent to pay to redeem his child. No energy is too great. No effort is too demanding. A parent will go to any length to find his or her own. So will God!

From Dad Time

Hebrews 13

Jesus Doesn’t Change

1–4  13 Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love. Be ready with a meal or a bed when it’s needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it! Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you. Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex.

5–6  Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote,

God is there, ready to help;

I’m fearless no matter what.

Who or what can get to me?

7–8  Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.

9  Don’t be lured away from him by the latest speculations about him. The grace of Christ is the only good ground for life. Products named after Christ don’t seem to do much for those who buy them.

10–12  The altar from which God gives us the gift of himself is not for exploitation by insiders who grab and loot. In the old system, the animals are killed and the bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood is then brought inside to the altar as a sacrifice for sin. It’s the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates—that is where he poured out the sacrificial blood that was brought to God’s altar to cleanse his people.

13–15  So let’s go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus. This “insider world” is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come. Let’s take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus’ name.

16  Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.

17  Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel. They are alert to the condition of your lives and work under the strict supervision of God. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, not its drudgery. Why would you want to make things harder for them?

18–21  Pray for us. We have no doubts about what we’re doing or why, but it’s hard going and we need your prayers. All we care about is living well before God. Pray that we may be together soon.

May God, who puts all things together,

makes all things whole,

Who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus,

the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant,

Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd,

up and alive from the dead,

Now put you together, provide you

with everything you need to please him,

Make us into what gives him most pleasure,

by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah.

All glory to Jesus forever and always!

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

22–23  Friends, please take what I’ve written most seriously. I’ve kept this as brief as possible; I haven’t piled on a lot of extras. You’ll be glad to know that Timothy has been let out of prison. If he leaves soon, I’ll come with him and get to see you myself.

24  Say hello to your pastoral leaders and all the congregations. Everyone here in Italy wants to be remembered to you.

25  Grace be with you, every one.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, June 09, 2024

Today's Scripture

2 Corinthians 9:6-11

Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.

8–11  God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,

He throws caution to the winds,

giving to the needy in reckless abandon.

His right-living, right-giving ways

never run out, never wear out.

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

Insight

The context for Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 9 is fascinating. More than a year earlier, the apostle had begun the process of taking up a collection to support the struggling church in Jerusalem. The Corinthians at the time had been exceptionally eager (8:10), and Paul had leveraged that enthusiasm to encourage the Macedonian churches to also give eagerly and generously (9:1-2).

But despite their enthusiasm, the people had lagged in their preparation for the gift, and the apostle was increasingly concerned that they wouldn’t follow through on their commitment. As a result, he encouraged them with the promise of Psalm 112:9 that God is more than capable of increasing their resources and enabling generous giving (2 Corinthians 9:8-11). For Paul, it was important that believers in Jesus carry out their promises with the same enthusiasm they started with. And they could trust that God would equip them to do so. By: Jed Ostoich

Big-Hearted Giving

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. 2 Corinthians 9:7

At the after-school Bible club where my wife Sue serves once a week, the kids were asked to donate money to help children in the war-torn country of Ukraine. About a week after Sue told our eleven-year-old granddaughter Maggie about the project, we got an envelope in the mail from her. It contained $3.45, along with a note: “This is all I have for the kids in Ukraine. I’ll send more later.”

Sue hadn’t suggested to Maggie that she should help, but perhaps the Spirit prompted her. And Maggie, who loves Jesus and seeks to live for Him, responded.

We can learn a lot as we think of this small gift from a big heart. It mirrors some instructions about giving provided by Paul in 2 Corinthians 9. First, the apostle suggested that we should sow “generously” (v. 6). A gift of “all I have” is certainly a generous one. Paul also wrote that our gifts should be given cheerfully as God leads and as we’re able, not because we’re “under compulsion” (v. 7). And he mentioned the value of “gifts to the poor” (v. 9) by quoting Psalm 112:9.

When an opportunity to give presents itself, let’s ask how God wants us to respond. When we’re generous and cheerful in directing our gifts to those in need as He leads us, we give in a way that “will result in thanksgiving to God” (2 Corinthians 9:11). That’s big-hearted giving. By:  Dave Branon

Reflect & Pray

What motivates you to generously give to others? How do you strive to meet their true needs?

Dear God, please guide me to be the kind of generous giver that You want me to be—reflecting Your generous heart.  

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, June 09, 2024

Ask If You Have Not Received

For everyone who asks receives. — Luke 11:10

There is nothing more difficult than to ask. We desire and crave and suffer, but only when we’ve reached our absolute limit do we ask. What finally makes us ask God for the Holy Spirit is a sense of unreality. We sense that we are not spiritually real and that we cannot become spiritually real on our own. When this happens, when we glimpse our powerlessness, we must ask God for the Spirit, basing our request on the words of Jesus: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the one who makes real in us all that Jesus did on our behalf.

“For everyone who asks receives.” This doesn’t mean that if we don’t ask, we’ll get nothing; God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good” alike (Matthew 5:45). But until we ask, we won’t receive from God directly. To receive from God directly means that we have come into a specific relationship with him—we have become his children— and now we perceive, with moral appreciation and spiritual under- standing, that all things come from him.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God” (James 1:5). If you realize you lack wisdom, it is because you’ve come into contact with spiritual reality, and your eyes have been opened. Don’t put on the blinders of reasonableness again. Don’t listen when people say, “Be reasonable; preach the simple gospel. Don’t tell us we have to be holy, because that makes us feel abjectly poor.”

If we are abjectly poor, we are in the right condition for asking. “Ask” means “beg.” We must ask out of poverty. If instead we ask out of greed, we’ll never receive. We must ask because we know that, without God, we have nothing. A pauper isn’t ashamed to beg. Paupers beg because they are poor; there is no other reason. Blessed are the paupers in spirit (Matthew 5:3).

2 Chronicles 32-33; John 18:19-40

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end.

Not Knowing Whither, 901 R

Lamentations 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Managing Our Thoughts

You’ve got to admit—anger shows up, and we let him in. Revenge needs a place to stay, so we have him pull up a chair. Pity wants a party, we show him the kitchen.

Don’t we know how to say no?  For most of us, thought management is, well, un-thought of.  Shouldn’t we be as concerned about managing our thoughts as we are managing anything else?

Jesus stubbornly guarded the gateway of his heart. On one occasion the people determined to make Jesus their king. Most of us would delight in the notion. Not Jesus.  When He saw they were about to grab him and make him king,  John 6:15 tells us, “Jesus slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself.”

Proverbs says, be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life!  (Proverbs 4:23).  Jesus did, shouldn’t we do the same?  Most certainly!

from Just Like Jesus

Lamentations 5

Give Us a Fresh Start

1–22  5 “Remember, God, all we’ve been through.

Study our plight, the black mark we’ve made in history.

Our precious land has been given to outsiders,

our homes to strangers.

Orphans we are, not a father in sight,

and our mothers no better than widows.

We have to pay to drink our own water.

Even our firewood comes at a price.

We’re nothing but slaves, bullied and bowed,

worn out and without any rest.

We sold ourselves to Assyria and Egypt

just to get something to eat.

Our parents sinned and are no more,

and now we’re paying for the wrongs they did.

Slaves rule over us;

there’s no escape from their grip.

We risk our lives to gather food

in the bandit-infested desert.

Our skin has turned black as an oven,

dried out like old leather from the famine.

Our wives were raped in the streets in Zion,

and our virgins in the cities of Judah.

They hanged our princes by their hands,

dishonored our elders.

Strapping young men were put to women’s work,

mere boys forced to do men’s work.

The city gate is empty of wise elders.

Music from the young is heard no more.

All the joy is gone from our hearts.

Our dances have turned into dirges.

The crown of glory has toppled from our head.

Woe! Woe! Would that we’d never sinned!

Because of all this we’re heartsick;

we can’t see through the tears.

On Mount Zion, wrecked and ruined,

jackals pace and prowl.

And yet, God, you’re sovereign still,

your throne intact and eternal.

So why do you keep forgetting us?

Why dump us and leave us like this?

Bring us back to you, God—we’re ready to come back.

Give us a fresh start.

As it is, you’ve cruelly disowned us.

You’ve been so very angry with us.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, June 08, 2024

Today's Scripture

Genesis 35:1-5

God spoke to Jacob: “Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau.”

2–3  Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, “Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, we’re going to Bethel. I’m going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I’ve gone since.”

4–5  They turned over to Jacob all the alien gods they’d been holding on to, along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree in Shechem. Then they set out. A paralyzing fear descended on all the surrounding villages so that they were unable to pursue the sons of Jacob.

Insight

In the Old Testament, idolatry was rampant in Israel. This was one of the primary things God warned the Israelites about before they were brought to their new homeland, for the surrounding nations were deep into idol worship: “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. . . . Do not make any idols” (Exodus 34:14, 17; see Leviticus 19:4). Included among those idols were Asherim (also known as Astarte), Baal (a weather god), Dagon (half-fish, half-man), and many more. Years after Israel entered the land of promise, Isaiah offered great insight about idols: “[The carpenter] makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, ‘Save me! You are my god!’ They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand” (Isaiah 44:17-18). Such strong words show the folly of idol worship. By: Bill Crowder

House Gods

Throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord. Joshua 24:23

The men in the Bible study group were nearly eighty years old, so I was surprised to learn they struggled with lust. A battle that had begun in their youth lingered still. Each day they pledged to follow Jesus in this area and asked forgiveness for the moments they failed.

It may surprise us that godly men still fight against base temptations at a late stage in life, but maybe it shouldn’t. An idol is anything that threatens to take the place of God in our lives, and such things can show up long after we assume they’re gone.

In the Bible, Jacob had been rescued from his uncle Laban and his brother Esau. He was returning to Bethel to worship God and celebrate His many blessings, yet his family still kept foreign gods that Jacob had to bury (Genesis 35:2-4). At the end of the book of Joshua, after Israel had defeated their enemies and settled in Canaan, Joshua still had to urge them to “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord” (Joshua 24:23). And King David’s wife Michal apparently kept idols, for she put one in his bed to deceive the soldiers who came to kill him (1 Samuel 19:11-16).

Idols are more common than we think, and God is more patient than we deserve. Temptations to turn to them will come, but God’s forgiveness is greater. May we be set apart for Jesus—turning from our sins and finding forgiveness in Him. By:  Mike Wittmer

Reflect & Pray

What sin are you most tempted by? What steps might you take to destroy this idol?

Father, I confess my sin, and I gratefully receive Your forgiveness through Jesus.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, June 08, 2024

Determine to Know More

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. — John 13:17

If you do not cut the moorings, God will have to break them with a storm and send you out. Launch all on God, go out on the swelling tide of his purpose, and you will have your eyes opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time safe inside the harbor, full of delight. You have to get out into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself. You have to develop spiritual discernment.

When you know you should do a thing and you do it, God immediately grants you more knowledge. Look at the places where you’ve become stuck spiritually. You’ll find that your entrenchment began when you failed to do something you knew you should. You procrastinated, thinking there was no urgency. Now you have no perception and no discernment. In times of crisis, you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-possessed.

Your spiritual destiny is to know and to do the will of God (Romans 12:1–2). Many who refuse to know God’s will practice a counterfeit form of obedience: they manufacture crises in order to play at sacrificing themselves, hoping their passion will be mistaken for discernment. It’s easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, but God’s word on the matter is clear: “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).

Never live on memories. Beware of nostalgically pining for the safety of the harbor, for the person you used to be. God wants you to be something you’ve never been. He wants you to find out all you long to know. “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out . . .” (John 7:17).

2 Chronicles 30-31; John 18:1-18

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

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

Lamentations 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS THE FOUNTAIN - June 7, 2024

On my list of things I wish I’d learned earlier, this truth hovers near the top. Grace came my way packaged in a church. Congregations and their leaders changed me. But then churches struggled, even divided. Mature men acted less than that. The box ripped, the faucet clogged, and my heart, for a time sank.

Not a moment too soon, I heard the invitation of the still-running fountain. “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” God describes himself as “the fountain of living water.” Thank him for the faucets, but don’t trust them to nourish you. Thank him for the boxes in which his gifts come, but don’t fail to open them. And most of all, do not fail to read the note: Dear child of mine. Are you thirsty? Come and drink. I delight in you, and I will never fail you or forsake you!

Lamentations 4

Waking Up with Nothing

1  4 Oh, oh, oh …

How gold is treated like dirt,

the finest gold thrown out with the garbage,

Priceless jewels scattered all over,

jewels loose in the gutters.

2  And the people of Zion, once prized,

far surpassing their weight in gold,

Are now treated like cheap pottery,

like everyday pots and bowls mass-produced by a potter.

3  Even wild jackals nurture their babies,

give them their breasts to suckle.

But my people have turned cruel to their babies,

like an ostrich in the wilderness.

4  Babies have nothing to drink.

Their tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths.

Little children ask for bread

but no one gives them so much as a crust.

5  People used to the finest cuisine

forage for food in the streets.

People used to the latest in fashions

pick through the trash for something to wear.

6  The evil guilt of my dear people

was worse than the sin of Sodom—

The city was destroyed in a flash,

and no one around to help.

7  The splendid and sacred nobles

once glowed with health.

Their bodies were robust and ruddy,

their beards like carved stone.

8  But now they are smeared with soot,

unrecognizable in the street,

Their bones sticking out,

their skin dried out like old leather.

9  Better to have been killed in battle

than killed by starvation.

Better to have died of battle wounds

than to slowly starve to death.

10  Nice and kindly women

boiled their own children for supper.

This was the only food in town

when my dear people were broken.

11  God let all his anger loose, held nothing back.

He poured out his raging wrath.

He set a fire in Zion

that burned it to the ground.

12  The kings of the earth couldn’t believe it.

World rulers were in shock,

Watching old enemies march in big as you please,

right through Jerusalem’s gates.

13  Because of the sins of her prophets

and the evil of her priests,

Who exploited good and trusting people,

robbing them of their lives,

14  These prophets and priests blindly grope their way through the streets,

grimy and stained from their dirty lives,

Wasted by their wasted lives,

shuffling from fatigue, dressed in rags.

15  People yell at them, “Get out of here, dirty old men!

Get lost, don’t touch us, don’t infect us!”

They have to leave town. They wander off.

Nobody wants them to stay here.

Everyone knows, wherever they wander,

that they’ve been kicked out of their own hometown.

16  God himself scattered them.

No longer does he look out for them.

He has nothing to do with the priests;

he cares nothing for the elders.

17  We watched and watched,

wore our eyes out looking for help. And nothing.

We mounted our lookouts and looked

for the help that never showed up.

18  They tracked us down, those hunters.

It wasn’t safe to go out in the street.

Our end was near, our days numbered.

We were doomed.

19  They came after us faster than eagles in flight,

pressed us hard in the mountains, ambushed us in the desert.

20  Our king, our life’s breath, the anointed of God,

was caught in their traps—

Our king under whose protection

we always said we’d live.

21  Celebrate while you can, O Edom!

Live it up in Uz!

For it won’t be long before you drink this cup, too.

You’ll find out what it’s like to drink God’s wrath,

Get drunk on God’s wrath

and wake up with nothing, stripped naked.

22  And that’s it for you, Zion. The punishment’s complete.

You won’t have to go through this exile again.

But Edom, your time is coming:

He’ll punish your evil life, put all your sins on display.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, June 07, 2024

Today's Scripture

Acts 20:17-24, 34-35

On to Jerusalem

17–21  From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the leaders of the congregation. When they arrived, he said, “You know that from day one of my arrival in Asia I was with you totally—laying my life on the line, serving the Master no matter what, putting up with no end of scheming by Jews who wanted to do me in. I didn’t skimp or trim in any way. Every truth and encouragement that could have made a difference to you, you got. I taught you out in public and I taught you in your homes, urging Jews and Greeks alike to a radical life-change before God and an equally radical trust in our Master Jesus.

22–24  “But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.

With these bare hands I took care of my own basic needs and those who worked with me. In everything I’ve done, I have demonstrated to you how necessary it is to work on behalf of the weak and not exploit them. You’ll not likely go wrong here if you keep remembering that our Master said, ‘You’re far happier giving than getting.’ ”

Insight

Joyful giving for believers in Jesus should be wholehearted and wholistic. Paul’s ministry in Ephesus demonstrates this. His ministry included passionate, bold preaching and teaching that touched the souls of his hearers: “You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house” (Acts 20:20). Paul’s ministry didn’t stop with speaking, however. He also labored physically for himself and others (v. 34). Through such self-giving, Paul mimicked the model of Christ who taught that, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (v. 35). By: Arthur Jackson

Joy in Giving

It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35

When Keri’s young son was going through yet another surgery related to muscular dystrophy, she wanted to take her mind off her family’s situation by doing something for someone else. So she rounded up her son’s outgrown but gently used shoes and donated them to a ministry. Her giving prompted friends and family members and even neighbors to join in, and soon more than two hundred pairs of shoes were donated!

Although the shoe drive was meant to bless others, Keri feels her family was blessed more. “The whole experience really lifted our spirits and helped us to focus outward.”

Paul understood how important it was for followers of Jesus to give generously. On his way to Jerusalem, the apostle Paul stopped in Ephesus. He knew it would likely be his last visit with the people of the church he’d founded there. In his farewell address to the church elders, he reminded them how he’d worked diligently in service to God (Acts 20:17-20) and encouraged them to do the same. Then he concluded with Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (v. 35).

Jesus wants us to freely and humbly give of ourselves (Luke 6:38). When we trust Him to guide us, He’ll provide opportunities for us to do so. Like Keri’s family, we may be surprised by the joy we experience as a result. By:  Alyson Kieda

Reflect & Pray

In what way might God be calling you to give of yourself to another? When have you been the beneficiary of someone’s generosity?

Dear Father, please help me to freely give of my time and resources to others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, June 07, 2024

Don’t Slack Off

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. — John 15:7

Am I fulfilling the ministry of the interior life, taking time alone with the Father to intercede for others in prayer? I need not worry that the moments I claim for prayer are selfish. There is no danger of infatuation or pride in intercession; it is a hidden ministry which brings forth the fruit that glorifies the Father. Am I slacking off in my spiritual life, allowing my spiritual energies to be frittered away? Or am I learning to remain in Jesus? To remain in Jesus is to concentrate my spiritual energies around a single point: the atonement of the Lord.

I must begin to realize this central point of power in my life. Do I give one minute out of sixty to concentrate upon it? “If you remain in me” means “If you continually act and think and work on the basis of my atonement.” What holds the most power over me right now? Is it my job? Serving others? Trying to work for God? It isn’t the thing I spend the most time on that shapes me the most; it’s the thing that exerts the greatest power over me. What ought to exert the greatest power over me is Jesus Christ. I must decide to be limited in my affinities, to choose carefully where I place my attention. If Jesus Christ is more and more my dominating interest, every phase of my life will bear fruit for him.

Jesus says that if we remain in him and his words remain in us, God will answer our prayers. Do we recognize this truth? “But,” you say, “suppose I ask for something not according to God’s will?” You won’t—not if you’re fulfilling Jesus’s wish that you remain in him. The disciple who remains in Jesus is the will of God. The choices this disciple makes, though they appear to be made freely, are actually God’s foreordained decrees. Mysterious? Yes. Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes. But a glorious truth to those who remain in him.

2 Chronicles 28-29; John 17

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”

The Shadow of an Agony, 1166 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, June 07, 2024

God's "Welcome Home" Arms - #9760

Whether you're in your car, or in your home, or almost anywhere you are right now, I think you probably have available to you what you're going to need for our next few minutes. Yeah, because you're either near one or you might even carry one. Now, some people use this object too much, other people could afford to use it a little more. Maybe you've guessed what it is by now. Yep, it's a mirror, and you'll need it today, because that's where we're going to end up.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's 'Welcome Home' Arms."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God will take us ultimately to the mirror. In fact, it's found in Luke 15:17. If you're real conversant with your New Testament, you might recognize Luke 15 as being the home of that familiar story we call the Prodigal Son. And you know in that story he had gone to his apparently well-to-do father and said, "Dad, I'm restless. I don't know if I want to stay home anymore. I wonder if you could give me my share of the inheritance, and then I'm going to get this out of my system. I want to get out of here. I know you haven't died yet, but could I have my inheritance?"

Now, I don't really know what was on his mind, and we don't know why he wanted to leave. Maybe he was tired of the rules his dad had, and then he had an older brother. Maybe he didn't get along with him. But he went away, and the Bible says, "He went to a far country." So he wanted to get far away. It didn't take him long to blow all his money. He had a lot of friends as long as he had that money.

Then he lost his friends when he lost his "bucks." And he ended up working for a pig farmer - the worst possible thing a Jewish boy could end up doing would be feeding the pigs. But he was so desperate, he had to do an unkosher job. And here he said, "Boy, I wonder if my dad would even take me back as one of his servants?" And there he is sorting it out, trying to figure out, "How did I ever get in this mess? How did I end up in a pig pen?"

Maybe for you, you're looking at your life and you're not in the pig pen right now, but things aren't going right. You're restless, you're feeling disoriented, confused, disappointed, there's a lot of frustration that's built up over the last few months, maybe some anger. You're really looking for some answers, and you're saying, "Whose fault is it I'm in this mess?"

Luke 15:17 tells us the end of the Prodigal Son's search for the answer. And in these simple words recorded in the King James Version of the New Testament it says this: "And he came to himself." Now, I know that means he came to his senses. But I think it also implies to us that after he went down the list and he said, "Okay, it's not my Father's fault. Okay, well let's see, if I didn't have that brother. No, no, it's not my brother's fault. If my friends weren't so fickle. No, I guess I can't blame my friends. If only I hadn't run out of money, if I hadn't invested in the wrong thing, or if it weren't for this boss who is giving me this crummy job."

Finally, after scratching off all the other causes, he ends up looking in the mirror. I told you we'd come back there. It says, "He came finally to himself." Maybe that's the first place you're going to begin to find deliverance from your restlessness, your frustration. You've got to look in the mirror and say, "Lord, I think I'm the one who needs to be changed. I'm not going to blame it on my circumstances, or the problem people in my life, or my wife, or my husband, or my kids, or my parents, or the economy, a lack of resources. It's not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer."

Every counselor's first job is to get a person to take the responsibility for their own situation. Whether you're a parent, or a son, or a daughter, or a worker, or a boss, I trust that you will begin to say, "Lord, begin with me."

And if you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, the life-giver, well He's what you've been missing. Right now you could change that by pinning all your hopes on Him and saying "Jesus, You died on the cross for me, rose again from the dead, now would you walk into my life today?"

Look in the mirror. Offer what you see to the Father, and just like the father of the Prodigal Son, He's going to clean you up and make you look like royalty.

Lamentations 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WHAT HEAVEN TOLD YOU - June 6, 2024

When the doctor who’d examined the tremor in my hand said, “You’re fine. You’re in good health,” I did what you might expect – I began to weep. “How much time do I have left?” The doctor cocked his head, puzzled. Wait a second! you’re thinking. Didn’t you hear what the doctor told you? And I’m wondering, didn’t you hear what heaven told you?

That response to the doctor? I made it up. I was elated. And now when I see my thumb shake, I chalk it up to an aging body and I just place my trust in the doctor’s words. Do the same won’t you? For just as my thumb will occasionally tremble, you will occasionally sin. And when you do, remember sin may touch you, but it cannot claim you. Christ is in you! Trust his work for you. Trust his work in you. Your heart is his home, and he is your master.

Lamentations 3-

God Locked Me Up in Deep Darkness

1–3  3 I’m the man who has seen trouble,

trouble coming from the lash of God’s anger.

He took me by the hand and walked me

into pitch-black darkness.

Yes, he’s given me the back of his hand

over and over and over again.

4–6  He turned me into a scarecrow

of skin and bones, then broke the bones.

He hemmed me in, ganged up on me,

poured on the trouble and hard times.

He locked me up in deep darkness,

like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.

7–9  He shuts me in so I’ll never get out,

manacles my hands, shackles my feet.

Even when I cry out and plead for help,

he locks up my prayers and throws away the key.

He sets up blockades with quarried limestone.

He’s got me cornered.

10–12  He’s a prowling bear tracking me down,

a lion in hiding ready to pounce.

He knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces.

When he finished, there was nothing left of me.

He took out his bow and arrows

and used me for target practice.

13–15  He shot me in the stomach

with arrows from his quiver.

Everyone took me for a joke,

made me the butt of their mocking ballads.

He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat,

bloated me with vile drinks.

16–18  He ground my face into the gravel.

He pounded me into the mud.

I gave up on life altogether.

I’ve forgotten what the good life is like.

I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished.

God is a lost cause.”

It’s a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God

19–21  I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,

the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.

I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—

the feeling of hitting the bottom.

But there’s one other thing I remember,

and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

22–24  God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,

his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.

They’re created new every morning.

How great your faithfulness!

I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).

He’s all I’ve got left.

25–27  God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,

to the woman who diligently seeks.

It’s a good thing to quietly hope,

quietly hope for help from God.

It’s a good thing when you’re young

to stick it out through the hard times.

28–30  When life is heavy and hard to take,

go off by yourself. Enter the silence.

Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:

Wait for hope to appear.

Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.

The “worst” is never the worst.

31–33  Why? Because the Master won’t ever

walk out and fail to return.

If he works severely, he also works tenderly.

His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.

He takes no pleasure in making life hard,

in throwing roadblocks in the way:

34–36  Stomping down hard

on luckless prisoners,

Refusing justice to victims

in the court of High God,

Tampering with evidence—

the Master does not approve of such things.

God Speaks Both Good Things and Hard Things into Being

37–39  Who do you think “spoke and it happened”?

It’s the Master who gives such orders.

Doesn’t the High God speak everything,

good things and hard things alike, into being?

And why would anyone gifted with life

complain when punished for sin?

40–42  Let’s take a good look at the way we’re living

and reorder our lives under God.

Let’s lift our hearts and hands at one and the same time,

praying to God in heaven:

“We’ve been contrary and willful,

and you haven’t forgiven.

43–45  “You lost your temper with us, holding nothing back.

You chased us and cut us down without mercy.

You wrapped yourself in thick blankets of clouds

so no prayers could get through.

You treated us like dirty dishwater,

threw us out in the backyard of the nations.

46–48  “Our enemies shout abuse,

their mouths full of derision, spitting invective.

We’ve been to hell and back.

We’ve nowhere to turn, nowhere to go.

Rivers of tears pour from my eyes

at the smashup of my dear people.

49–51  “The tears stream from my eyes,

an artesian well of tears,

Until you, God, look down from on high,

look and see my tears.

When I see what’s happened to the young women in the city,

the pain breaks my heart.

52–54  “Enemies with no reason to be enemies

hunted me down like a bird.

They threw me into a pit,

then pelted me with stones.

Then the rains came and filled the pit.

The water rose over my head. I said, ‘It’s all over.’

55–57  “I called out your name, O God,

called from the bottom of the pit.

You listened when I called out, ‘Don’t shut your ears!

Get me out of here! Save me!’

You came close when I called out.

You said, ‘It’s going to be all right.’

58–60  “You took my side, Master;

you brought me back alive!

God, you saw the wrongs heaped on me.

Give me my day in court!

Yes, you saw their mean-minded schemes,

their plots to destroy me.

61–63  “You heard, God, their vicious gossip,

their behind-my-back plots to ruin me.

They never quit, these enemies of mine, dreaming up mischief,

hatching out malice, day after day after day.

Sitting down or standing up—just look at them!—

they mock me with vulgar doggerel.

64–66  “Make them pay for what they’ve done, God.

Give them their just deserts.

Break their miserable hearts!

Damn their eyes!

Get good and angry. Hunt them down.

Make a total demolition here under your heaven!”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, June 06, 2024

Today's Scripture

Luke 24:28–35

They came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if he were going on but they pressed him: “Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done.” So he went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, he blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. And then he disappeared.

32  Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road, as he opened up the Scriptures for us?”

A Ghost Doesn’t Have Muscle and Bone

33–34  They didn’t waste a minute. They were up and on their way back to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and their friends gathered together, talking away: “It’s really happened! The Master has been raised up—Simon saw him!”

35  Then the two went over everything that happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread.

Insight

Luke 24:31 says, “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” Why didn’t these believers in Jesus know who He was when He first joined them on their journey (vv. 15-16)? The situation calls to mind Mary Magdalene’s visit to the empty tomb earlier that same day (John 20:15). Similarly, when the disciples went fishing all night, they didn’t initially recognize Christ (21:1-4). In those two cases, we might readily explain their inability. Mary’s vision may have been clouded by tears, and the distance and early-morning light might have kept the disciples from recognizing Jesus at Galilee. But on the road to Emmaus, those explanations aren’t plausible. The key may be in Luke 24:16, which says, “They were kept from recognizing him.” Jesus may have purposely prevented them from recognizing Him so that the process of instructing them (vv. 17-27) would yield a more powerful effect. By: Tim Gustafson

Give Thanks to God

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Luke 24:30

My friend hurried from her stressful job at the hospital, wondering what she would prepare for dinner before her husband returned from his equally demanding job. She had made chicken on Sunday and served leftovers on Monday. Then, they had yet another round of chicken—this time baked—on Tuesday. She found two pieces of fish in the freezer, but she knew the fillets weren’t her husband’s favorite. Not finding anything else she could prepare in just a few minutes, she decided the fish would have to do.

As she placed the dish on the table, she said somewhat apologetically to her husband who had just arrived home: “I know this isn’t your favorite.” Her husband looked up and said, “Honey, I’m just happy we have food on the table.”

His attitude reminds me of the importance of being grateful and thankful for our daily provisions from God—whatever they are. Giving thanks for our daily bread, or meals, models Jesus’ example. When He ate with two disciples after His resurrection, Christ “took bread, gave thanks, [and] broke it” (Luke 24:30). He thanked His Father as He had earlier when He’d fed the five thousand with five “loaves and two small fish” (John 6:9). When we give thanks for our daily meals and for other provisions, our gratitude reflects Jesus’ ways and honors our heavenly Father. Let’s give thanks to God today. By:  Katara Patton

Reflect & Pray

How often do you show your thanks to Jesus? How does it honor Him to do so?

God of all, thank You for my daily bread and all the other needs You meet for me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, June 06, 2024

Work Out What God Works In

Work out your own salvation. — Philippians 2:12

After God has done the work of our salvation, there is something we must do: we must begin to work out what God has worked in, bringing every aspect of our lives into alignment with his will.

Do you find it difficult to do the will of God? Perhaps you want to obey, but something in your flesh makes you powerless to do what you know you should.

The barrier that keeps you from obeying God isn’t your own will. Will is the essential element in God’s creation of humankind; its source, in those who have been reborn, is almighty: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). What stops you from following God is the stub- bornness that arises from your sinful nature. Sin is something much less profound than will. Sin is a perverse disposition that entered into humanity after the fall; will comes directly from God. The only way to get rid of sin and stubbornness is to blow them up with dynamite— the dynamite of obedience to the Holy Spirit.

When you begin to obey the Holy Spirit, you’ll find that your will agrees with God, because God is its source. You do not bring an opposed will to God’s will; God’s will is your will. When the Lord, through the Spirit, presents himself to your conscience, the first thing your conscience does is ignite your will, urging you to action. If you remain steadfastly established on the complete and perfect redemp- tion of the Lord, this process becomes as natural as breathing, and stubbornness no longer gets in the way.

Do I believe that almighty God is the source of my will? God not only expects me to do his will; he is in me to help me do it.

2 Chronicles 25-27; John 16

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. 

The Place of Help, 1032 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, June 06, 2024

Peace In Your Storm - #9759

Now, I've had a chance to see gridlock a lot in New York City. Vehicles choking at every intersection and literally nothing can move. I even saw gridlock in a grocery store. The weatherman had forecast a huge snowstorm for our area which was supposed to begin during the night. Well I stopped by the store late that evening (dumb!) and I ended up trying to find the end of the line for the cash register. They only had two lanes open and there was a line of carts all the way to the produce section all jammed together so no one could come in, no one could go out, and no one could go through. What brought this sudden urge to shop late at night? Word of an approaching storm.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace In Your Storm."

See, storms are a fact of everybody's life. If it's calm right now, you can be sure somewhere up ahead there's a storm. That's life. The question is are you ready for that time when things start spinning out of control around you and maybe inside of you? Since we know we're going to head into heavy weather sometimes, we need to know we have what it takes to make it through the crises that sink a lot of other people. Well here's the testimony of a man who lived through imprisonment, disability, injustice, assassination attempts - the Apostle Paul. The man was unsinkable because he was prepared for any storm. We've got a lot to learn from him.

Here's our word today from the Word of God, which he wrote. It's from 2 Timothy 1:12. He says, "I am not ashamed, because I know Whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." Paul is talking about a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the only man in history who was powerful enough to beat death and blow the doors off His grave. Paul says, "I'm convinced He's able to guard what's important to me." The ultimate security in life is knowing that you belong to this Jesus.

I was talking to my friend John recently - ten cancer operations in eight years. He's been at death's door three times. When you talk to him, you come away almost disbelieving that he's carrying all this pain. He's positive and generous, he's joyful, he's encouraging. The surgeon is even sending John to some other patients who just aren't handling the storm of cancer. John made a simple but heart-rending statement to me. He said, "Ron, you don't handle it well when you try to handle it without a Savior." That's the difference - the Savior difference, the Jesus difference.

See, all approaches to life work when things are going well. But the test of what you're living for is the storm. Things like cancer, bankruptcy, getting fired, divorce, terminal illness. Even smaller storms can drive us to the edge and sometimes over the edge unless we've committed ourselves completely to this awesome Savior named Jesus.

See, He loves you unconditionally. You say, "How do I know?" He died on the cross for the very sins you've done against Him. He's willing to put your life in His eternal keeping and then give you eternal life beginning the day you entrust yourself totally to Him. This could be that day. You could do that right where you are. Maybe you could pray to Him like this: "Lord Jesus, I've been trying to do it without a Savior. I've lived my last day without you. I believe you died to pay the death penalty for the sinning I've done, and today I'm putting my total trust in you. I need a Savior. I need You."

If you've never done that. If you want this to be that turning point day, your new beginning, then you could go to our website which we've set up right there where I can help you know exactly how to begin this relationship and be sure you have. That website is ANewStory.com.

See, Jesus - the one who during a life-threatening storm in His lifetime, stepped to the bow of the boat He was in and said, "Peace, be still" and it was. That Jesus wants to do that for you in your storm.

Hebrews 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: PERFECT LOVE - June 5, 2024

Dry mouth. Moist palms. Pulse pounding. Eyes darting over your shoulder. Heart in your throat. You know the feeling. You know the moment. You know exactly what it’s like. Policeman have stirred more prayers than a thousand pulpits! Upward prayers become backward thoughts. What did I do? How fast was I going? The policeman is standing at your door. No one likes the thought of judgment.

1 John 4:18 (NLT) says, “Perfect love expels all fear.” You need never fear God’s judgment. Not today. Not on Judgment Day. With perfect knowledge of the past and perfect vision of the future, God loves you—perfectly—in spite of both. Jesus is speaking on your behalf. “That’s my friend,” he says. And when he does, the door of heaven open. Trust God’s love. His perfect love. It can handle your fear of judgment. And slower driving can handle your fear of policemen.

 Hebrews 12

Discipline in a Long-Distance Race

1–3  12 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!

4–11  In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,

but don’t be crushed by it either.

It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;

the child he embraces, he also corrects.

God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

12–13  So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!

14–17  Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you’ll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God’s generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time. Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God’s blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.

An Unshakable Kingdom

18–21  Unlike your ancestors, you didn’t come to Mount Sinai—all that volcanic blaze and earthshaking rumble—to hear God speak. The earsplitting words and soul-shaking message terrified them and they begged him to stop. When they heard the words—“If an animal touches the Mountain, it’s as good as dead”—they were afraid to move. Even Moses was terrified.

22–24  No, that’s not your experience at all. You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens. It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just. You’ve come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel’s—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.

25–27  So don’t turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn’t get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he’s told us this quite plainly—he’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.

28–29  Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire!

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, June 05, 2024

Today's Scripture

Jeremiah 1:1-10

Demolish, and Then Start Over

1–4  1 The Message of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah of the family of priests who lived in Anathoth in the country of Ben-jamin. God’s Message began to come to him during the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amos reigned over Judah. It continued to come to him during the time Jehoiakim son of Josiah reigned over Judah. And it continued to come to him clear down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah over Judah, the year that Jerusalem was taken into exile. This is what God said:

5  “Before I shaped you in the womb,

I knew all about you.

Before you saw the light of day,

I had holy plans for you:

A prophet to the nations—

that’s what I had in mind for you.”

6  But I said, “Hold it, Master God! Look at me.

I don’t know anything. I’m only a boy!”

7–8  God told me, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a boy.’

I’ll tell you where to go and you’ll go there.

I’ll tell you what to say and you’ll say it.

Don’t be afraid of a soul.

I’ll be right there, looking after you.”

God’s Decree.

9–10  God reached out, touched my mouth, and said,

“Look! I’ve just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered!

See what I’ve done? I’ve given you a job to do

among nations and governments—a red-letter day!

Your job is to pull up and tear down,

take apart and demolish,

And then start over,

building and planting.”

Insight

In Jeremiah 1:4-5, we see God’s call on Jeremiah. His reply, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young” (v. 6) is reminiscent of Moses’ response to God’s call in Exodus 4:10: “I have never been eloquent . . . . I am slow of speech and tongue.” Gideon’s response to the angel is similar: “Pardon me, my lord, . . . but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family” (Judges 6:15). God’s answer to all is the loving reassurance that He’s with us and will give us the words to speak. We need not fear (Jeremiah 1:8-9). By: Alyson Kieda

Liked and Loved by God

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. Jeremiah 1:5

It feels like “likes”—you know, that little thumbs-up on Facebook—have always been with us. But it turns out that this virtual symbol of affirmation has only been around since 2009.    

The “like” designer, Justin Rosenstein, said he wanted to help create “a world in which people uplift each other rather than tear each other down.” But Rosenstein came to lament how his invention might have enabled users’ unhealthy addiction to social media.  

I think Rosenstein’s creation speaks to our hardwired need for affirmation and connection. We want to know that others know us, notice us—and, yes, like us. The “like” is fairly new. But our hunger to know and be known is as old as God's creation of man.

Still, the like button doesn’t quite get the job done, does it? Thankfully, we serve a God whose love goes so much deeper than a digital nod. In Jeremiah 1:5, we witness His profoundly purposeful connection with a prophet whom He called to Himself. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”

God knew the prophet even before conception and designed him for a life of meaning and mission (vv. 8-10). And He invites us too into a purposeful life as we come to know this Father who so intimately knows, loves, and likes us. By:  Adam Holz

Reflect & Pray

How does knowing God intimately affect how you relate to others? How can living with purpose bring peace?

Father, help me to rest in Your love and calling on my life, to know that You care for me intimately as You shape me for each of the days You’ve planned for me.

Discover how to live out your purpose.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, June 05, 2024

God’s Promise

God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” — Hebrews 13:5-6

“Never will I leave you.” God’s promise allows me to go through life without being haunted by fear. This doesn’t mean I won’t be tempted to fear; rather, in the midst of temptation, I will remember what God has said and so be full of courage—just like a child who picks himself up and dusts himself off in order to please his father.

So many of us stumble in our faith when fear sets in. We forget the power of God’s promise; we forget to take a deep breath spiritually. We become filled with dread, convinced that nothing and no one can help us.

What are you dreading? You are not a coward; whatever it is, you’re going to face it. Yet you still have a feeling of dread. Build on God’s promise. Say with confidence, “In this moment, in my present mind- set, the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.”

“God has said. … So we say…” Are you learning to speak only after you’ve listened to what God has said? Or are you trying to make his words fit into what you already believe? The only way to move past dread is to grasp the full meaning of God’s promise. “Never will I forsake you”—no matter what kind of evil or challenge is in your way.

Another thing that gets in the way of God’s promise is our own weakness. When we realize how frail we are in facing difficulties, the difficulties become like giants, we become like grasshoppers, and God becomes a nonentity (Numbers 13:33). Have we learned to sing after hearing God’s melody? Are we finding the courage to say, “The Lord is my helper”? Or are we succumbing to the weak side of our nature?

2 Chronicles 23-24; John 15

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray.

So Send I You, 1325 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, June 05, 2024

That's God Calling Your Name - #9758

Remember the good old days when we used to have that phone that rang a lot of times in the house and somebody had to get to it first? Telephone etiquette has changed a lot with cell phones but I wonder sometimes if people ever learned telephone etiquette. You know you kind of cringe when a child answers the phone. You never know if they're going to hang up, or if they're going to yell into the phone, "Hey, Mom!" or if they're just going to put down the phone and forget to tell anyone that you're waiting. Ah, but the daughter of a friend of ours...oh, a pleasant exception. The family visited our office and when they got home, I called and the little girl answered. Very polite, very coherent, very competent. I said, "Hey, girl, how would you like to be my secretary?" She must have seen how crazy that job was when they were in the office, because she answered immediately...oh, not with a yes - not with a no. She just said, "Uh, how about my brother?"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "That's God Calling Your Name."

Our word for today from the Word of God is in Isaiah 6:8. And it's God's question 27 centuries ago. It's His question still today. He says, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And Isaiah said, "Here am I. Send me!" God has a lot of people who need to be loved out there - need to be listened to, who need to be told about the love that His Son showed by dying their death penalty right on the cross. There's too many people looking for love in all the wrong places, right? Too many people giving up, living self-destructively, hurting themselves, hurting other people. Worst of all, there are too many people going into eternity without any hope because they don't have a Savior.

Isaiah's answer ought to be ours: "Here am I. Send me!" Instead we say, "Here am I. Send him. I support him. Uh, how about my brother?" See, Moses was told that God was coming down to rescue his suffering nation, and I imagine Moses was going "Great!" And then God says, "I am sending you." And Moses said, "Oh, please send someone else!" You are not going to have any peace until you say what Isaiah said - you'll have no fulfillment. You can't delegate spiritual responsibility for the people in your world. God is asking you to step in. Your family needs a spiritual leader, Dad. You say, "Well, how about my wife?" No, the buck stops with you, man.

That ministry needs leadership. God's saying, "I want you to do it." Someone's son or daughter needs to spend their life reaching the lost, and maybe you're saying, "Lord, how about somebody else's son or daughter?" Someone needs to tell the people in your neighborhood about Jesus, the people where you work or where you go to school. You could argue with the Lord, "Well, I'm inadequate, I'm not trained, I'm not ready, there's someone better." But the Lord of the Universe has put you in the position to make the difference for them. He's calling your name. He said to Moses, "Who made mouths?" This isn't something you will do for Jesus. This is something Jesus will do through you. When God is asking you to step up to spiritual responsibility, guess who He means? He means you!"

Thousands of years ago He called Moses' name in a burning bush. You may not have a burning bush. I doubt that you will. But in the life of almost every believer, there is a day when you hear your name called. Don't let God's call go into voicemail.

My young friend who answered the phone didn't want the responsibility I offered her, but she didn't say no. She just tried to pass the buck. Maybe that's what God's been hearing from you. Not a no to his work, but not a yes either. It's sort of a "Well, I think somebody else Lord." He doesn't want someone else. It's your heart He's knocking on. It's your opportunity to serve the King of all Kings. It's your assignment to carry out, and this is your day to say, "Dear Lord, here am I. Send me!"

Lamentations 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: HYDRATE YOUR SOUL - June 4, 2024

Don’t deny your anger. Don’t dismiss your loneliness. Your restless spirit. Your sense of dread. Don’t let your heart shrink into a raisin. Hydrate your soul. Heed that thirst!

Not everything you put to your lips will help your thirst. The arms of forbidden love may satisfy for a time, but only for a time. Eighty-hour workweeks grant a sense of fulfillment, but they never remove the thirst. Religion pacifies, but never satisfies. Church activities may hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him. And drink him often!

Don’t you need regular sips from God’s reservoir? I do. I step to the underground spring of God and receive anew his work for my sin and death, the energy of his Spirit, his Lordship, and his love. His unending, unfailing love. Drink deeply, and drink often.

Lamentations 2

God Walked Away from His Holy Temple

1  2 Oh, oh, oh …

How the Master has cut down Daughter Zion

from the skies, dashed Israel’s glorious city to earth,

in his anger treated his favorite as throwaway junk.

2  The Master, without a second thought, took Israel in one gulp.

Raging, he smashed Judah’s defenses,

made hash of her king and princes.

3  His anger blazing, he knocked Israel flat,

broke Israel’s arm and turned his back just as the enemy approached,

came on Jacob like a wildfire from every direction.

4  Like an enemy, he aimed his bow, bared his sword,

and killed our young men, our pride and joy.

His anger, like fire, burned down the homes in Zion.

5  The Master became the enemy. He had Israel for supper.

He chewed up and spit out all the defenses.

He left Daughter Judah moaning and groaning.

6  He plowed up his old trysting place, trashed his favorite rendezvous.

God wiped out Zion’s memories of feast days and Sabbaths,

angrily sacked king and priest alike.

7  God abandoned his altar, walked away from his holy Temple

and turned the fortifications over to the enemy.

As they cheered in God’s Temple, you’d have thought it was a feast day!

8  God drew up plans to tear down the walls of Daughter Zion.

He assembled his crew, set to work and went at it.

Total demolition! The stones wept!

9  Her city gates, iron bars and all, disappeared in the rubble:

her kings and princes off to exile—no one left to instruct or lead;

her prophets useless—they neither saw nor heard anything from God.

10  The elders of Daughter Zion sit silent on the ground.

They throw dust on their heads, dress in rough penitential burlap—

the young virgins of Jerusalem, their faces creased with the dirt.

11  My eyes are blind with tears, my stomach in a knot.

My insides have turned to jelly over my people’s fate.

Babies and children are fainting all over the place,

12  Calling to their mothers, “I’m hungry! I’m thirsty!”

then fainting like dying soldiers in the streets,

breathing their last in their mothers’ laps.

13  How can I understand your plight, dear Jerusalem?

What can I say to give you comfort, dear Zion?

Who can put you together again? This bust-up is past understanding.

14  Your prophets courted you with sweet talk.

They didn’t face you with your sin so that you could repent.

Their sermons were all wishful thinking, deceptive illusions.

15  Astonished, passersby can’t believe what they see.

They rub their eyes, they shake their heads over Jerusalem.

Is this the city voted “Most Beautiful” and “Best Place to Live”?

16  But now your enemies gape, slack-jawed.

Then they rub their hands in glee: “We’ve got them!

We’ve been waiting for this! Here it is!”

17  God did carry out, item by item, exactly what he said he’d do.

He always said he’d do this. Now he’s done it—torn the place down.

He’s let your enemies walk all over you, declared them world champions!

18  Give out heart-cries to the Master, dear repentant Zion.

Let the tears roll like a river, day and night,

and keep at it—no time-outs. Keep those tears flowing!

19  As each night watch begins, get up and cry out in prayer.

Pour your heart out face-to-face with the Master.

Lift high your hands. Beg for the lives of your children

who are starving to death out on the streets.

20  “Look at us, God. Think it over. Have you ever treated anyone like this?

Should women eat their own babies, the very children they raised?

Should priests and prophets be murdered in the Master’s own Sanctuary?

21  “Boys and old men lie in the gutters of the streets,

my young men and women killed in their prime.

Angry, you killed them in cold blood, cut them down without mercy.

22  “You invited, like friends to a party, men to swoop down in attack

so that on the big day of God’s wrath no one would get away.

The children I loved and reared—gone, gone, gone.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, June 04, 2024

Today's Scripture

Psalm 42:1-5

A white-tailed deer drinks

from the creek;

I want to drink God,

deep draughts of God.

I’m thirsty for God-alive.

I wonder, “Will I ever make it—

arrive and drink in God’s presence?”

I’m on a diet of tears—

tears for breakfast, tears for supper.

All day long

people knock at my door,

Pestering,

“Where is this God of yours?”

4  These are the things I go over and over,

emptying out the pockets of my life.

I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd,

right out in front,

Leading them all,

eager to arrive and worship,

Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—

celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!

5  Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?

Why are you crying the blues?

Fix my eyes on God—

soon I’ll be praising again.

He puts a smile on my face.

He’s my God.

Insight

Psalm 42 is the first of eleven psalms attributed to the sons of Korah (also Psalms 44-49; 84-85; 87-88). But who were they? The word sons here means descendants—not direct sons—of a man named Korah, who was part of a conspiracy to overthrow Moses’ leadership in the wilderness wanderings of the Exodus. Korah (of the tribe of Levi), Dathan, Abiram, and On—along with 250 respected community leaders—joined together in this conspiracy (Numbers 16:1-3). How ironic that years later, Korah’s descendants would follow the intended path of the Levites (see ch. 18) to be among the worship leaders of the nation. For a voice of dissension to pave the way for voices of worship is a beautifully redemptive story. By: Bill Crowder

Thirsty and Thankful

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. Psalm 42:1

Two friends and I were checking off a bucket list item—hiking the Grand Canyon. We wondered if we had enough water as we started out our hike, and it ran out fast. We were completely out of water with still a ways to go to reach the rim. Panting, mixed with praying, set in. Then we rounded a corner and what we maintain as a miracle happened. We spotted three water bottles tucked in a cleft in the rock with a note: “Knew you’d need this. Enjoy!” We looked at each other in disbelief, whispered a thank-you to God, took a couple of much-needed sips, and then set out on the last stretch. I’ve never been so thirsty—and thankful—in my life.

The psalmist didn’t have a Grand Canyon experience, but it’s clear he knew how a deer acts when thirsty and possibly scared. The deer “pants” (Psalm 42:1), a word that brings to mind thirst and hunger, to the point where if something doesn’t change, you’re afraid you might die. The psalmist equates the deer’s degree of thirst to his desire for God: “so my soul pants for you, my God” (v. 1).

Like much-needed water, God is our ever-present help. We pant for Him because He brings renewed strength and refreshment to our weary lives, equipping us for whatever the day’s journey holds. By:  John Blase

Reflect & Pray

When have you been intensely thirsty or hungry, and scared? Why should you be longing for God’s presence?

Loving God, thank You for the renewed strength I experience as You fill my life. Forgive me for looking to any other source but You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, June 04, 2024

The Never-Failing God

God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:5

What path do my thoughts take? Do they turn to what God says or to what I fear? “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” If I am listening to God, I won’t simply take his comforting words and leave it at that; I’ll build upon them, adding words of my own: “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid’” (Hebrews 13:6).

“Never will I leave you.” God has promised that he will never leave us—not for all our sin and selfishness and stubbornness. Have I truly let God say to me that he’ll never leave me? If I have, let me listen again.“Never will I forsake you.” Difficulty isn’t always what makes me think God will forsake me. Sometimes it’s the tedium of the day-to-day, of living with no great challenge to meet, no special vision to pursue, nothing wonderful or beautiful to urge me on. Can I hear God’s promise when life is uninspiring?

We have the idea that God is going to do something exceptional with us, that he’s preparing us for some extraordinary feat. But as we grow in grace, we find that he is glorifying himself through us here and now. If we hold fast to God’s promise, we will find that we have the most amazing strength, and we will learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways.

2 Chronicles 21-22; John 14

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

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

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, June 04, 2024

Someone You Can Finally Trust - #9757

Gal! That's the name of the dog that belongs to our missionary friend. She, and they, have lived on a Native American reservation. Most reservation dogs - they call them rez dogs - are pretty aggressive to say the least. They'll meet you whether you want to meet them or not. Not Gal. As soon as she sees anyone approaching, she runs for cover. You try to befriend her, she just cowers in a corner and trembles. It's pitiful! We asked our friends why Gal was so withdrawn, and it's a sad story. She'd been abused as a puppy by her former owner, and any time anyone got close, she was afraid. Yeah, that they would hurt her like those other people had.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone You Can Finally Trust."

Too hurt to trust anyone. That's not just something that happens to a pet. It happens to people a lot. Maybe it's happened to you. Somewhere along the way you've been hurt, you've been abandoned, betrayed, abused, mistreated. And like that little dog, you're afraid to let anyone get close. In fact, you may have built up some pretty elaborate defenses to make sure no one does. But really, you're just afraid they're going to hurt you like somebody else did.

I saw one of our team on that reservation get very close to Gal - that dog. In fact, Gal would seek her out and give and receive a lot of affection. But it was because that person took time to win that dog's trust. She proved that she only wanted to love her and help her, and that love actually broke through the fear and the hurt. That's what I pray will happen for you. See, there's someone who is leaning your direction this very day, someone with outstretched arms, not to hurt you but to hold you and to heal you. It's Jesus! He knows a lot about being hurt.

Listen to these words that describe Him. They are our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 61:1-2. "The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners."

See, Jesus is the healer of broken hearts and broken lives. He's the liberator from the darkness. But can He be trusted? God's answer - Romans 8:32 - "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will He not also graciously give us all things."

And then later in that chapter it says, "Nothing can ever separate us from His love." Can Jesus be trusted? Just walk up to that garbage dump hill called Skull Hill. Stand there in the pouring rain at the foot of Jesus' cross and see the agony Jesus is suffering there, the nails in His hands and feet, the thorns pressed on His brow, the spear wound in His side. Most of all, the total separation from God. And realize that's for you. That's your sin He's dying to pay for.

Oh you can trust Him. He loves you enough to die for you. And He's been waiting for you to turn your life over to Him so He can start the healing process that only He can bring. But first you have to tell Him that you're putting your total trust in Him to be your Savior. I know that word trust is a hard one after what you've been through. But you can't just go on hurting, and hiding and alone. And this One who loved you so much that He gave everything for you, He's the one person you can finally totally trust. You've been looking for Him. You've been longing for this person for a long time.

I hope you'll reach out to Him today and say, "Jesus, you loved me enough to die for me. I'm yours." And if you want to know how to get that relationship started, please go to our website. It'll take only a few minutes but it could make a lifetime of difference for you. It's ANewStory.com.

I don't know what you've been through, but Jesus does. And as He approaches you today, don't run from His open arms. As He reaches to you, you will see in His hands nail prints from the suffering He went through for you. Jesus is the Healer that your heart has always wanted.

Lamentations 1 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: RIVERS OF LIVING WATER - June 3, 2024

Your body is 80% fluid. Stop drinking and see what happens. Coherent thoughts vanish, skin grows clammy, and vital organs wrinkle. Deprive your heart of spiritual water and your dehydrated heart will send desperate messages – hopelessness, loneliness, resentment.

Where do you find water for your soul? Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38 NKJV).

Let Christ be the water of your soul. Church activities might hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him. Receive Christ’s work on the cross. The energy of His Spirit. His Lordship over your life. His unending, unfailing love. Drink deeply and often. And out of you will flow rivers of living water.

Lamentations 1

Worthless, Cheap, Abject!

1  1 Oh, oh, oh …

How empty the city, once teeming with people.

A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations,

once queen of the ball, she’s now a drudge in the kitchen.

2  She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow.

No one’s left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand.

Her friends have all dumped her.

3  After years of pain and hard labor, Judah has gone into exile.

She camps out among the nations, never feels at home.

Hunted by all, she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.

4  Zion’s roads weep, empty of pilgrims headed to the feasts.

All her city gates are deserted, her priests in despair.

Her virgins are sad. How bitter her fate.

5  Her enemies have become her masters. Her foes are living it up

because God laid her low, punishing her repeated rebellions.

Her children, prisoners of the enemy, trudge into exile.

6  All beauty has drained from Daughter Zion’s face.

Her princes are like deer famished for food,

chased to exhaustion by hunters.

7  Jerusalem remembers the day she lost everything,

when her people fell into enemy hands, and not a soul there to help.

Enemies looked on and laughed, laughed at her helpless silence.

8  Jerusalem, who outsinned the whole world, is an outcast.

All who admired her despise her now that they see beneath the surface.

Miserable, she groans and turns away in shame.

9  She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow,

and now she’s crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand:

“Look at my pain, O God! And how the enemy cruelly struts.”

10  The enemy reached out to take all her favorite things. She watched

as pagans barged into her Sanctuary, those very people for whom

you posted orders: keep out: this assembly off-limits.

11  All the people groaned, so desperate for food, so desperate to stay alive

that they bartered their favorite things for a bit of breakfast:

“O God, look at me! Worthless, cheap, abject!

12  “And you passersby, look at me! Have you ever seen anything like this?

Ever seen pain like my pain, seen what he did to me,

what God did to me in his rage?

13  “He struck me with lightning, skewered me from head to foot,

then he set traps all around so I could hardly move.

He left me with nothing—left me sick, and sick of living.

14  “He wove my sins into a rope

and harnessed me to captivity’s yoke.

I’m goaded by cruel taskmasters.

15  “The Master piled up my best soldiers in a heap,

then called in thugs to break their fine young necks.

The Master crushed the life out of fair virgin Judah.

16  “For all this I weep, weep buckets of tears,

and not a soul within miles around cares for my soul.

My children are wasted, my enemy got his way.”

17  Zion reached out for help, but no one helped.

God ordered Jacob’s enemies to surround him,

and now no one wants anything to do with Jerusalem.

18  “God has right on his side. I’m the one who did wrong.

Listen everybody! Look at what I’m going through!

My fair young women, my fine young men, all herded into exile!

19  “I called to my friends; they betrayed me.

My priests and my leaders only looked after themselves,

trying but failing to save their own skins.

20  “O God, look at the trouble I’m in! My stomach in knots,

my heart wrecked by a life of rebellion.

Massacres in the streets, starvation in the houses.

21  “Oh, listen to my groans. No one listens, no one cares.

When my enemies heard of the trouble you gave me, they cheered.

Bring on Judgment Day! Let them get what I got!

22  “Take a good look at their evil ways and give it to them!

Give them what you gave me for my sins.

Groaning in pain, body and soul, I’ve had all I can take.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, June 03, 2024

Today's Scripture

1 John 1:5-10

Walk in the Light

5  This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.

6–7  If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.

8–10  If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.

Insight

Verses 6-10 of 1 John 1 all begin with a conditional statement: “If we . . . .” In verse 6, John uses a phrase unique to him: “[we] do not live out the truth.” It could literally be translated as “we do not do the truth.” This phrase is also found in John 3:21: “Whoever lives by the truth [literally, does the truth] comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” In both instances, “doing the truth” is connected to one’s relationship with God. Since God can’t lie (see 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2), those who do not “do the truth,” are, by implication, liars and can have no “fellowship with Him” (1 John 1:6). In contrast, if we “do the truth”—“walk in the light”—Jesus’ blood “purifies us from all sin” and “we have fellowship with one another” (v. 7). By: J.R. Hudberg

Cleansed by Christ

He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us. 1 John 1:9

My first short-term missions trip was to the Amazon jungle in Brazil to help build a church by the river. One afternoon, we visited one of the few homes in the area that had a water filter. When our host poured murky well water into the top of the contraption, within minutes all the impurities were removed, and clean, clear drinking water appeared. Right there in the man’s living room, I saw a reflection of what it means to be cleansed by Christ.

When we first come to Jesus with our guilt and shame and ask Him to forgive us and we receive Him as our Savior, He cleanses us from our sins and makes us new. We’re purified just like the murky water was transformed into clean drinking water. What a joy it is to know we are in right standing with God because of Jesus’ sacrifice (2 Corinthians 5:21) and to know God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

But the apostle John reminds us that this doesn’t mean we’ll never sin again. When we do sin, we can be assured by the image of a water filter and be comforted by knowing that as “we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Let’s live confidently knowing that we’re continually being cleansed by Christ. By:  Nancy Gavilanes

Reflect & Pray

Why is it vital to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins? How does it feel to know you don’t have to be a prisoner of sin?

Dear God, thank You that You’re faithful and just to forgive me if I confess my sins to You.

Learn more about having a personal relationship with God.

https://odb.org/personal-relationship-with-god

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, June 03, 2024

The Secret Of The Lord

The Lord confides in those who fear him. — Psalm 25:14

What is the sign of true friends? That they tell you secret sorrows? No, that they tell you secret joys. Many people will confide to you their secret sorrows, but the ultimate sign of intimacy is confiding secret joys. Have we ever let God tell us his joys? Or are we so busy telling God our secrets that we leave no room for him to talk to us?

At the beginning of our Christian life, our prayers are full of requests. Then we discover that what God wants is to bring us, through prayer, into a personal relationship with him so that he can reveal his will. Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer is, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Are we so committed to this way of praying that we catch the intimate secrets of God? God may bring us great big blessings, but it is the small, secret things that make us love him, because they show his amazing intimacy with us. They show that he knows every detail of our lives.

“He will instruct them in the ways they should choose” (Psalm 25:12). At the start of our life of faith, we want to be conscious of God guiding us. But as we go on, we no longer need to ask what his will is; the thought of choosing anything else no longer occurs to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God instructs us in every choice we make, guiding our common sense and alerting us when we are in danger of choosing something he doesn’t want. When God checks us in this way, we must obey. Never reason it out and say, “I wonder why I shouldn’t.” Whenever there is doubt, don’t.

2 Chronicles 19-20; John 13:21-38

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances. 

Not Knowing Whither, 900 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, June 03, 2024

How to Make the Bible About You - #9756

I was speaking at a youth conference, and we all had breakfast in the cafeteria together. And then when we got together for our morning session I said, "Now, I want you guys to imagine that somebody who was at breakfast with us comes in the room and his cheeks are all puffy and you ask him what's wrong, and he just goes, "uh...uh... uh..." And you go, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Here's a piece of paper to write down what's going on here." And he writes down, "I'm starved." Now I ask him, "Did you eat breakfast?" "Uh-huh." "And you're still hungry?" "Uh-huh." And then I would ask him, "Did you swallow it?" "Huh-uh." "Oh, maybe that's why you're still hungry." See, it isn't enough just to ingest your food; you've got to swallow it for it to do anything for you.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Make the Bible About You."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God is in Joshua 1:8. And you might say it's about spiritual eating and spiritual digestion, because ingestion is not enough to satisfy your appetite. Ingesting food is not enough to nourish you. Joshua 1:8 puts it this way in the biblical formula for personal success. It says this, "Do not let this book of the law (the Bible) depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night."

In other words, be saturated with God's Word. Take a Bible bath. You should be in it day and night, really knowing what it's saying. But listen, it says, "So that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

Did you catch those words "careful to do"? It doesn't say, "I want you to read the Bible to just know what it says." I want you to read the Bible to do what it says. The purpose of being in God's Word is to memorize it, meditate on it, but then to do what you read. In other words, until the Bible gets into your real life, until you've found a change you're going to make because of what you've read, all you've done is sort of take it in, kind of hold it in your mouth spiritually, but it's not in your system.

So when you study the Bible, if you're going to read it to do something, that means before you close the Bible each morning when you're with the Lord, you say, "Lord, help me make a connection to something I'm going to face today." Always make that connection between what you're reading and what your life is doing right now. So, if you're reading about loving your brother, you say, "Okay, which brother am I having a hard time loving?" Okay, "Love your Ralph." Or whoever's the hard guy to love.

If it's talking about patience, you say, "Let's see, who do I need to be more patient with right now? Okay, Lord, help me be more patient with my Mom, or my wife." If it's talking about temptation, then you say, "Which temptation am I facing right now?" And you put that temptation into the verse. So if it says, "Do not let sin control your body." Then which sin? Okay, so you put in there, "Do not let gossip control your body" (the one you struggle with, whatever it is).

For example in James 1. Let's try this. You're reading the book of James, and it says, "Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds." Now if you're just ingesting, you'd kind of go, "Today I read about trials." Now, wait a minute. No, no! Which trial are you facing right now?" You go, "Oh, man, my boss!" Or you might say if you're married, "My in-laws." Okay, then make it in the verse, "Whenever you face trials of many kinds (with your boss, with your in-laws) because you know that the testing of your faith (by your boss), (your in-laws) develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Now, that verse could just be about trials in general, or it could be about someone or something you're facing today. When you make that connection, you begin to swallow what you're eating.

Every day ask yourself the question, "What am I going to do because of what I read?" And once you do that and start to make those changes, you are well on your way to an exciting new you - one day, one change at a time.

Hey, don't be content to just ingest the Bible, digest it. That's the only way you can grow.