Daily Archives: November 30, 2023

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Trusting God

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Bible in a Year:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Psalm 20:7

Today’s Scripture & Insight:

Psalm 20

I needed two medications urgently. One was for my mom’s allergies and the other for my niece’s eczema. Their discomfort was worsening, but the medicines were no longer available in pharmacies. Desperate and helpless, I prayed repeatedly, Lord, please help them.

Weeks later, their conditions became manageable. God seemed to be saying: “There are times when I use medicines to heal. But medicines don’t have the final say; I do. Don’t place your trust in them, but in Me.”   

In Psalm 20, King David took comfort in God’s trustworthiness. The Israelites had a powerful army, but they knew that their biggest strength came from “the name of the Lord” (v. 7). They placed their trust in God’s name—in who He is, His unchanging character, and unfailing promises. They held on to the truth that He who is sovereign and powerful over all situations would hear their prayers and deliver them from their enemies (v. 6).  

While God may use the resources of this world to help us, ultimately, victory over our problems comes from Him. Whether He gives us a resolution or the grace to endure, we can trust that He’ll be to us all that He says He is. We don’t have to be overwhelmed by our troubles, but we can face them with His hope and peace.     

By:  Karen Huang

Reflect & Pray

In your personal battles, where or in what do you place your trust? How might trusting in God’s name change the way you cope with these challenges?

Heavenly Father, give me the courage to trust in You. Help me to believe that You’re all that You promise to be.

http://www.odb.org

John MacArthur

Grace to You; John MacArthur – An Unlikely Heroine

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“By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace” (Heb. 11:31).

Rahab illustrates the depth and breadth of God’s amazing grace.

Our final Old Testament hero of faith is an unlikely addition to the list. Not only was she a prostitute, she also was a Gentile—and a Canaanite at that.

The Canaanites were an idolatrous, barbaric, debauched people, infamous even among pagans for their immorality and cruelty. Yet in the midst of that exceedingly wicked society, Rahab came to faith in the God of Israel.

Joshua 2:9-11 records her confession of faith to the two men Joshua had sent into Jericho as spies: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And when we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (emphasis added).

Rahab demonstrated the genuineness of that profession by risking her life to hide the spies from the king of Jericho, who sought to capture them.

Because Rahab lied to protect the spies (vv. 4-5), some people question the validity of her faith. Surely genuine believers wouldn’t lie like that—or would they? Abraham did. Sarah did. Isaac did. Jacob did. But the important thing to understand is that God honored their faith, not their deception.

As with all the heroes of faith before her, Rahab’s faith wasn’t perfect, nor was her knowledge of God’s moral law. But because she trusted God, she was spared during Jericho’s conquest, then given an even greater honor. She became the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth, the great-great-grandmother of David, thereby becoming an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:5).

Suggestions for Prayer

Praise God for receiving even the vilest sinner who turns to Him in faith.

For Further Study

Read all about Rahab in Joshua 2:1-24, 6:22-25, and James 2:25.

From Drawing Near by John MacArthur 

http://www.gty.org/

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Make a Thankful List

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O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His compassion and lovingkindness endure forever!

— Psalm 107:1 (AMPC)

To help you achieve and maintain a new level of contentment in your life, I encourage you to use some of your quiet time with God to make a list of everything you have to be thankful for. It should be a long list, one that includes little things as well as big things. Why should it be long? Because we all have a lot of things to be thankful for if we just look for them.

Get out a piece of paper and start listing things you have to be thankful for. Keep the list and add to it frequently. Make it a point to think about the things that you’re grateful for when you’re driving the kids to an activity or waiting in line at the post office or whatever you may be doing throughout the day. You can only learn the power of thankfulness by practicing it every day. Meditating on what you have to be grateful for every day and verbalizing it will be amazingly helpful to you.

Prayer of the Day: Father, thank You so much! You are only good, and I should always be mindful of the many blessings I enjoy. Please open my eyes to the good and cultivate a heart of gratitude in me on the daily, amen.

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Alistair Begg

Truth for Life; Alistair Begg – Now Is the Time

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Now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

2 Corinthians 6:2

Nothing confronts us with our creatureliness quite like the watch that we wear on our wrist or the clock that ticks on our wall. Try and think about no time. It’s virtually impossible for us to do. God, who is outside of time, created time so that we might live each moment that He has given to us for His glory.

We don’t like to face it, but Scripture frequently calls us to face life’s brevity. It tells us that our life is “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). The Bible confronts us with transience in this way not to manipulate us or crush us but in order that we might be sensible. We need to be reminded of how quickly time passes, especially when we are young, because we tend to think that we have more time than we really do.

The Bible almost always addresses us in the now: “Now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Now, in other words, is the time to be reconciled to God. Now is the time to take heed—not someday over the horizon. Now is the time to hold out the gospel message to those around you. You are not to live dominated by the regrets of yesterday or the anxieties of tomorrow. You are not to live as though you will always have a tomorrow in which to do what you should be doing today. You are to face the fact squarely, head on, that the future comes in at the rate of 60 seconds a minute.

The time that God has allotted you is quickly passing by. If you are not careful, it will be gone before you realize it. In Psalm 90, the psalmist prays, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). May this prayer become your own, and may God enable you to be a good steward of the time that He has given to you. Today is a great day to enjoy your salvation and to speak of it. Now is the time. Be sure to use it.

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Ephesians 5:15-20

Topics: Gospel Salvation Wisdom

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Kids 4 Truth

Kids4Truth Clubs Daily Devotional – God Is Just

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“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” (1 John 1:9)

Have you every wondered how God can really be just (fair, righteous, faithful) in His choice to forgive a sinner’s sins simply because this sinner confesses his sins?

The word “justice” in the Bible first appears in the Old Testament, in Leviticus 19:35-36. For example, God commands Israel to have “just” balances and “just” weights. Justice always involves at least two parties. Not parties like birthday parties, but parties like people. If you go to the grocery store to buy a pound of apples, and the apples cost fifty cents, then you have an obligation (a responsibility, a duty) to pay the shopkeeper that fifty cents. There is an understanding, an agreement, between two parties – between you and the shopkeeper. You know you owe him fifty cents, and he knows he owes you a full pound of good apples for your money. If you hand him only thirty-five cents, you are not holding up your end of the bargain. You are not being just. And if the shopkeeper were to give you less than a pound of apples but still charge you fifty cents for less than a pound, then he would be unjust toward you.

“Justice” has a lot to do with “fulfilling one’s obligation.” In other words, a just person is someone who is fair, who does right, who keeps his word, who acts consistently with what he has agreed to do.

So, going back to the original question: How can God, Who is perfectly just, forgive a sinner who is unjust, and declare that sinner to be just? Doesn’t any sin deserve punishment? Doesn’t the book of Hebrews in the New Testament teach that “without shedding of blood is no remission (forgiveness of sin)”? So how can a just God choose not to punish a guilty sinner? How can a just God choose instead to declare that sinner just (as though the sinner had fulfilled all his obligations)?

Maybe this story will help us understand:

There was once an island village whose chief was known for his goodness and justice. One day, a serious theft was reported in the village. Someone had stolen someone else’s pet goat. Immediately, the chief called together his whole village and declared that if the thief was caught, he would be punished. The thief would be beaten twenty times with a stick, and he would have to give back the pet goat.

A few days later, another theft was reported! Someone’s cow had been taken. This time, the chief increased the punishment to fifty beatings. Still, the thefts continued! Finally, the chief declared the maximum penalty would be given to this rebellious thief. The thief would be beaten one hundred times! Such a severe punishment would nearly be enough to kill a very strong man!

The search for the thief continued until the villagers finally found the guilty person: It was the chief’s own elderly mother! All the people of the village loved their chief and took pity upon him and his poor mother. They came to the chief and encouraged him to let her go without punishment. They told him it would be all right to make an exception for his elderly mother in this case. Surely such a harsh punishment would kill the poor old woman. But the chief refused to go back on his word. He had to stay just. He had to stick to his decisions.

On the day set for the old woman’s punishment, all of the villagers gathered to see what would happen. The chief’s feeble old mother was tied up to a pole, and the executioner was waiting for the chief’s signal to start the punishment. The chief nodded his head, but at the moment the executioner lifted up the stick to start beating the woman, the chief grabbed his arm. Then, the chief took off his shirt and and went to his mother and wrapped his body around her tiny frame. Then he told the executioner: “NOW, you may begin the beating!”

The Bible says God’s decision to forgive repentant sinners is just. How can that be? Because Jesus Christ, Who Himself is God, has already taken the full punishment for sinners. Just as this island village chief took his guilty mother’s punishment upon his own body, Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sins upon Himself and died in our place. In that way, God’s justice was fully applied and satisfied. God the Son took the part of the sinner’s party, fulfilling all His obligations, taking all the sinner’s punishment. And God the Father took the part of the righteous Judge, fulfilling all His obligations, and declaring the punishment to be done and the sinner to be righteous, because of Jesus Christ’s righteousness.

God is perfectly just in forgiving sinners whose sins are covered by Jesus Christ.

My Response:
» Am I trusting in Jesus Christ as the One Who can take the punishment for my sins?
» Do I sometimes have doubts about whether God is really just and fair in all He does?
» What does the Bible teach me about God’s character?

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – “You could just see glassy-eyed terror”: Stories reveal trauma of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas

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Israel confirmed early this morning that a temporary pause in the Israel–Hamas war would extend for at least one more day, with eight more Israeli hostages reportedly set to be released. Tragically, the tenuous nature of this truce was demonstrated when two Palestinian brothers affiliated with Hamas opened fire at the main entrance to Jerusalem, killing three Israelis and wounding six other people.

Meanwhile, what we know so far from the hostages who have been released is vital to winning another conflict: the propaganda war that seeks to validate Hamas while delegitimizing Israel.

Emily Hand is an example of the Israeli children hostages. After the nine-year-old was freed by Hamas, her father described her condition: “She was just whispering, you couldn’t hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips. She’d been conditioned not to make any noise. . . . You could just see glassy-eyed terror.” He added: “Last night, she cried until her face was red and blotchy, she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want any comfort, I guess she’s forgotten how to be comforted. She went under the covers of the bed, the quilt, covered herself up, and quietly cried.”

NOTE: Henry Kissinger, an American diplomat and Nobel winner, died yesterday at the age of one hundred. I will publish a Daily Article Special Edition this morning reflecting on his life and significant legacy.

“The danger many Jewish people fear the most”

Anti-Israel propagandists have claimed for years that Israel “stole” and “colonized” its land from the rightful Palestinian owners. (For more, I invite you to download my free digital book, The War in Israel: What You Need to Know about This Crisis of Global Significance.) Ironically, as commentator David Rubin notes, “Billions of people around the globe are about to celebrate the birthday of a Jewish man, born in Bethlehem 2000+ years ago, but don’t think Jews lived there before 1948.”

Now apologists for Hamas are claiming that the terrorists didn’t commit atrocities on October 7 while demanding a permanent ceasefire that would empower Hamas to slaughter more Israelis in the future. But the more children kidnapped by Hamas tell their stories, the more difficult it becomes to defend such atrocities.

This ideological war is consequential far beyond the Middle East. As Jewish American and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer writes in the New York Times, “Too many Americans are exploiting arguments against Israel and leaping toward a virulent antisemitism. The normalization and intensifying of this rise in hate is the danger many Jewish people fear the most.”

Sen. Schumer documents the shocking rise in antisemitic violence in America after Hamas’s October 7 invasion and asks, “Are we still a nation that can defy the course of human history, where the Jewish people have been ostracized, expelled, and massacred over and over again?” His question is obviously crucial for the future of Jews in America.

But it is also vital for the future of America herself.

The lowest point in our nation’s history?

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth” is a law of propaganda often attributed to Joseph Goebbels, the chief propagandist for the Nazi Party. Similarly, the first stage in changing culture is to normalize the new “truth” or behavior, then to legalize it, stigmatize those who oppose it, and criminalize their opposition.

LGBTQ advocates, for example, have followed this playbook very effectively in recent years. To illustrate: Disney’s new “family” Christmas movie portrays a family with two fathers and features a boy calling another boy a “hottie.” Evangelicals like me who disagree with such sexualization of children are stigmatized as “homophobic” and dangerous to society and may face legal and criminal penalties in the future.

However, while God loves us and wants to bless us (cf. Ephesians 2:4–5), he cannot love us and bless that which harms us.

When we abandon biblical truth and reject biblical morality, the prophet’s description becomes true of us: “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” (Isaiah 59:2). Since God is the only source of spiritual life (John 15:5), “to set the mind on the flesh is death” (Romans 8:6).

We should therefore be grieved but not surprised that US suicides reached a record high last year, or that overdose fatalities have risen fivefold in the last two decades, or that 68 percent of us say this is the lowest point in our nation’s history they can remember.

“There is only one relationship that matters”

In a sermon attributed to St. Macarius (AD 300–391) we read:

Woe to the path that is not walked on, or along which the voices of men are not heard, for then it becomes the haunt of wild animals. Woe to the soul if the Lord does not walk within it to banish with his voice the spiritual beasts of sin. Woe to the house where no master dwells, to the field where no farmer works, to the pilotless ship, storm-tossed and sinking. Woe to the soul without Christ as its true pilot; drifting in the darkness, buffeted by the waves of passion, storm-tossed at the mercy of evil spirits, its end is destruction.

Woe to the soul that does not have Christ to cultivate it with care to produce the good fruit of the Holy Spirit. Left to itself, it is choked with thorns and thistles; instead of fruit it produces only what is fit for burning. Woe to the soul that does not have Christ dwelling in it; deserted and foul with the filth of its passions, it becomes a haven for all the vices.

Does his warning describe and explain the spiritual and moral condition of our culture?

Conversely, we are promised: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Jesus assures us, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (John 15:5).

To this end, I will close by sharing my favorite paragraph in my favorite daily devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. I read it every year on this date and am encouraged and challenged each time by Oswald Chambers’ wisdom:

There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill his purpose through your life. One individual life may be of priceless value to God’s purpose, and yours may be that life.

Will God “fulfill his purpose through your life” today?

Denison Forum

John Hagee

Hagee Ministries; John Hagee –  Daily Devotion

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Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip.

Genesis 32:31

As Jacob wrestled with God, the sky began to lighten. God saw that He did not prevail against Jacob, so He touched his hip and threw it out of joint.

Jacob was forever changed. For the rest of his life, he leaned on God. When he escaped with Esau’s stolen birthright, he was proud and pompous. His shoulders were square; his chin was held high. His scheming deception had earned him what he wanted.

But after he wrestled with God, he was humble in heart. He carried himself slowly.  With each faltering step, he recognized that his blessing came from God. His limp reminded him of his new name and destiny. He called that place Penuel, face of God.

Have you ever been through a trial so traumatic that you were changed forever? The person you were before the crisis no longer exists. Yet, the new you recognizes that it is good that you were afflicted (Psalm 119:71). Your prayers prevailed; His Word has settled in your bones like never before.

You wrestled with God until the sun rose over you, and He gave His blessing. And because you contended through the long night, you are familiar with His face. You know Him in a way that defies explanation. You will never be the same.

Blessing

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you and give you His peace. Rejoice that God has brought you  safely through the fire and the flood. No one can snatch you from His hand. Give thanks for His faithfulness!

Today’s Bible Reading: 

Old Testament

Daniel 7:1-28

New Testament 

1 John 1:1-10

Psalms & Proverbs

Psalm 119:156-176

Proverbs 28:23-24

https://www.jhm.org

Turning Point

Turning Point; David Jeremiah – Fellow Servants

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I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book.
Revelation 22:9

 Recommended Reading: Revelation 22:1-9

Charles Lightoller was just drifting off to sleep on April 14, 1912, when he felt the collision of the Titanic with an iceberg. Rousing himself, he helped as many women and children as possible into lifeboats before he was swept into the icy sea. At that moment, a verse of Scripture came clearly to his mind—Psalm 91:11: “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (NIV).

Just then, a blast of hot air exploded from the belly of the ship, propelling Lightoller like a missile to the surface, where he managed to pull himself onto an overturned lifeboat. He had no doubt an angel had helped him.

Angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14), but they are also fellow servants with us. The angel told the apostle John, “I am your fellow servant” (Revelation 19:10). How incredible! Alongside angels, we are serving the Lord of hosts. There could be no higher calling!

Learning what the Bible says about angels ultimately is tied to thinking well about how God thinks about us. What God wants us to know about angels contributes to our eternal perspective.
MIchael Heiser

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Greg Laurie

Harvest Ministries; Greg Laurie – Be a Moses

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 Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the LORD means safety. 

—Proverbs 29:25

Scripture:

Proverbs 29:25 

Imagine the scene. Moses is descending from Mount Sinai, holding the commandments that God gave him. As he nears the Israelite camp, he sees the people dancing before a golden calf.

Outraged, he says to Aaron, “What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?” (Exodus 32:21 NLT).

Aaron’s excuse for the behavior of the people is so absurd that it should be permanently enshrined in the Excuse Hall of Fame.

He replied, “You yourself know how evil these people are. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!” (verses 22–24 NLT).

Aaron should have drawn the line when the people came to him and demanded something to worship. He should have told them, “You just worship God, and wait until Moses gets back.” Instead, he caved in.

Not only did Aaron go along with their plan, but he also facilitated it. He helped produce the problem.

Let’s remember that when God spoke to Moses through the burning bush, He wanted Moses alone to go to Pharaoh. God promised to do miracles through Moses to confirm that He had sent him.

However, Moses offered a series of excuses as to why he wasn’t the one for the job. He also complained that he’d never been a gifted speaker. So God said, “Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say” (Exodus 4:16 NLT).

But while Moses was away, Aaron made a mess of things.

There are a lot of people like Aaron today. When they’re around committed Christians, they’re strong. But when they’re away from Christians, they blend into the woodwork.

The story of Aaron’s spiritual demise serves as a warning to the vacillating, compromising person who always wants to go along with public opinion and is more concerned with what people think than with what God thinks.

As we see in this story, the compromiser reaches no one.

Maybe you think the way to reach your nonbelieving friends is to do what they do and simply blend in. You conclude that in doing so, you will win them over and they will come to Christ.

The reality is that no one has ever been won to Christ that way. The way people come to Christ is through Christians living godly lives. They come to Christ when Christians practice what they preach. They come to Christ when Christians love them with compassion and share God’s Word with them.

Don’t be an Aaron. Be a Moses. Be the person who stands up for what is right, because one person can make a big difference.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie