The Daily Readings for SATURDAY, July 7, 2018

The Greatest Commandment
Matthew 22:34-40

The Daily Readings

SATURDAY, July 7, 2018

Old Testament

Numbers 24:12-25
24:12 And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, 13 ‘If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will; what the Lord says, that is what I will say’? 14 So now, I am going to my people; let me advise you what this people will do to your people in days to come.”
Balaam’s Fourth Oracle
15 So he uttered his oracle, saying: “The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is clear, 16 the oracle of one who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down, but with his eyes uncovered: 17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near— a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the borderlands of Moab, and the territory of all the Shethites. 18 Edom will become a possession, Seir a possession of its enemies, while Israel does valiantly. 19 One out of Jacob shall rule, and destroy the survivors of Ir.” 20 Then he looked on Amalek, and uttered his oracle, saying: “First among the nations was Amalek, but its end is to perish forever.” 21 Then he looked on the Kenite, and uttered his oracle, saying: “Enduring is your dwelling place, and your nest is set in the rock; 22 yet Kain is destined for burning. How long shall Asshur take you away captive?” 23 Again he uttered his oracle, saying: “Alas, who shall live when God does this? 24 But ships shall come from Kittim and shall afflict Asshur and Eber; and he also shall perish forever.” 25 Then Balaam got up and went back to his place, and Balak also went his way.

The Epistle

Romans 8:18-25
Future Glory
8:18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

The Gospel

Matthew 22:23-40
The Question about the Resurrection
22:23 The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, 24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. 26 The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. 27 Last of all, the woman herself died. 28 In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her.” 29 Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching.
The Greatest Commandment
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The Morning Prayer for SATURDAY, July 7, 2018

Dear Lord, I don't know who or what will cross my path today. But I do know that You are my Rock and my Fortress. You are my Shield and my Strong Tower. Help me to anchor myself to You today. Teach me how to stand strong in You and choose only Your way today. Help me walk by Your truth and not my feelings. Help me to embrace anything that comes my way as an opportunity to see You at work and as an opportunity to point others to You. Thank You that You love me and nothing can ever take that away from me! Even if I fail today and fall short, You whisper Your unconditional love deep into my soul and remind me that Your mercies are new every morning. That truly amazes me, Lord. Thank You for meeting with me today. Would You wake me again tomorrow with the same sweet whisper of Your love? I can't wait to meet with You again. In Jesus' Name,

Amen

Verse of the Day for SATURDAY, July 7, 2018

Proverbs 17:27 (NIV) The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.

Read all of Proverbs 17

Listen to Proverbs 17

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Morning Devotions with Chaplain Kenny - In the Mood

In the Mood

The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.

~ Proverbs 17:27 (NIV)

If you have more than one child, there is a good chance you will have one who is moody. They will not be prone to exhibiting even-tempered behavior as often as your other child or children. You will probably have to intervene many times between them and their siblings to squelch a difficult situation. Speaking frankly, that one child who is more moody and whiney will most likely be the initiator of the problems most of the time.

It’s easy to become more frustrated with this child and say things that only exacerbate the situation. But notice that Proverbs 17:27 indicates that with this child in particular, it will take understanding on their part to become even-tempered. It will not be natural. It doesn’t mean something is wrong with them. Never say that. Teach them that it’s how they have been created. It will take patience and understanding on your and their part to initiate methods that help them deal with their moodiness and temperamental swings.

Wise parents are involved in this process and become great cheerleaders for their child when they grow in this area.

In Jesus,
Chaplain Kenny

Seeking God?
Click HERE to find out more about how to have a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ.
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Devotion taken from Once a Day Nurturing Great Kids.
Who is the most even-tempered and least even-tempered person in your family?

Un dia a la Vez - Semana de pacto con Dios: Nuestros ojos

Semana de pacto con Dios: Nuestros ojos

Pero fiel es el Señor, que os afirmará y guardará del mal.

~ 2 Tesalonicenses 3:3 (RV-60)

El símbolo de cuidar nuestros ojos no es solo el cuidado desde el punto de vista de la salud que tú y yo le podamos dar a los ojos. Es cuidarlos en el campo espiritual. Es cuidarnos de lo que estamos mirando y qué imágenes permitimos que lleguen a nuestro cerebro.

¿No es cierto que cuando vemos una imagen violenta se queda por varios días en nuestra mente? Es más, yo diría que se queda registrada allí para siempre. También eso sucede con las personas que están atadas a la pornografía. Ya sus ojos están contaminados y es como un vicio, pues cada vez quieren ver más. Entonces se dan cuenta que están súper enviciados y esto no solo les hace daño a ellos, sino que también traicionan a su familia y desagradan a Dios.

¿Cuál es tu caso? Si tienes temor de Dios, necesitas hacer hoy un pacto de cuidar tus ojos de lo que ven y entender si lo que has venido haciendo no está bien.

Por lo tanto, dile a Dios hoy: «Señor, me comprometo contigo a no volver a la pornografía. Renuncio por completo a cualquier acto deshonesto que esté haciendo con mis ojos y te ofrezco esta ofrenda por amor a ti».

Un Día a la Vez Copyright © by Claudia Pinzón
¿No es cierto que cuando vemos una imagen violenta se queda por varios días en nuestra mente?

Standing Strong Through the Storm - THE WORD OF GOD IS LIFE

THE WORD OF GOD IS LIFE

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

~ Isaiah 40:8 (NIV)

Amir, a young Algerian man, was temporarily staying in an apartment of a friend while recovering from depression. His friend had moved out leaving only a few items behind, but unbeknownst to him, he had left behind his most prized possession, God’s Word!

“While I was cleaning the apartment, I found a New Testament,” Amir says. “This New Testament changed my life. I found the Lord Jesus Christ by reading the book.” In the following months leading into years, he kept reading the Bible. Slowly, his depression lifted and the recovery and healing began to transform his life.

Amir continues, “One day I was watching Christian satellite TV and I saw the phone number of another Christian in Algeria. I immediately contacted that person and soon afterwards we met, which was great. This brother in Christ brought me into contact with a small group of believers, which I am attending regularly now. Praise to God for His healing and mercy. And thanks to the one who forgot his New Testament in the apartment.”

Meanwhile, Brother Gideon is in prison in Eritrea with a group of other believers because of their faith. He says, “The government representatives came up with a new idea to ask us to stop our faith and sign an agreement that we will not read the Bible. We will not pray and not have a meeting of more than two people. If we comply with that, we will sign and they will release us from the prison. But I told them I will not. Because of the Holy Spirit’s assurance in me I was ready to face anything…I said ‘No, Christ is my life. As Paul said in the book of Ephesians that for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’

“They beat every part of my body…until I almost died. I was thinking of Jesus. What an honor for me to share his affiliation. I remember I said to myself inside, ‘Lord, please forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing to me, but I give you my soul to rest in your hand.’

“They took us to the prison again. After three months we had a Bible smuggled in without their knowledge. We tore the pages out of different Bible books and we distributed those to different cells.

“We chose four believers to take responsibility to do distribution of the parts of the Bible. I was one of those four chosen believers and it was my responsibility to coordinate all these things. Because there is no paper in the prison cells, I was using toilet paper to write verses of the Bible and send them to others. When the government agents searched our cell, they found all those verses I sent to the sisters. They asked ‘Who sent those papers, those verses?’ When they found it was me, they put me under severe torture for months. There was no part of my body without pain.

“One of the persecutors asked me a question. ‘Why you are paying so big a price? Why don’t you renounce your faith and live a peaceful life?’ I replied, ‘To me, the Word of God is life!”

RESPONSE: Today I will honor and prize God’s Word and build my life upon its everlasting promises.

PRAYER: Pray for those in prisons around the world who pay a huge price for loving God’s Word.

Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS), a daily devotional message by SSTS author Paul Estabrooks. © 2011 Open Doors International. Used by permission.

The NIV Couples Devotional - Coming Clean With Each Other

Coming Clean With Each Other

Romans 8:1–17

Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again.

~ Romans 8:14–15 (NIV)

When Sheryl and Gary got engaged, they sat down and had some pretty frank conversations with one another. They discussed their families and their past relationships, trying to identify the ways their childhoods and dating histories might impinge on their present and future together.

What they didn’t discuss—at least not adequately—was their financial history. In particular, Gary didn’t tell his fiancée that, six years before, he had gotten into massive credit card debt. Gary figured he had dealt with the problem so it was behind him. Why bring up something that wasn’t an issue anymore?

Of course, any time we find ourselves thinking along those lines, something more is going on. If the incident in question was truly in the past, we would feel OK sharing it. Failing to bring up credit card debt, porn use or an affair means the shame of it hasn’t really left us but is still choking us as we try to keep it secret. Over time we become captive to our fears of being found out.

Gary managed to keep his financial past hidden from Sheryl for a few years, though he now says that, in hindsight, he can see that his inability to talk about money with Sheryl caused him to dodge conversations that were important for their financial future. Eventually, Gary had to talk about money and ’fess up to his past money mistakes and his deception when he and Sheryl tried to buy a house and were turned down for a loan because of Gary’s bad credit rating.

It was hard, of course, to have those conversations. “It was much harder than if I’d told Sheryl about my credit card debt years before,” Gary said. “Then we could have strategized together. And then I wouldn’t have had to deal with both Sheryl’s distress that we were having a hard time getting a mortgage and her even greater distress that I had, in effect, lied to her by not telling her the whole truth.”

It can be hard—even terrifying—to reveal a long-buried secret to your spouse. You worry he’ll be furious, that he’ll judge you, that he’ll be hurt. Indeed, your spouse might be hurt. She might be angry. She might be stunned. But put yourself in your spouse’s shoes; if he was keeping something from you, you would want him to come clean, not only so that you could be in the know, but so that he could be freed from the chains of shame and secrecy.

Romans 8:14–15 tells us that we are no longer slaves to fear. As children of God, we live in the light of full disclosure, sure of forgiveness, pardon and restoration—in our relationship with God and with each other.

Lauren Winner

Let’s Talk

• Is there a not-so-big issue one of us is keeping from the other? What is preventing full disclosure?
• Does envisioning God as truly present in our conversations make it easier to imagine starting a hard conversation with each other about that secret?
• Look back to the hard conversations we’ve had with each other. What have been the fruits of those discussions?

Why bring up something that wasn’t an issue anymore?

LHM Devotion - July 7, 2018 - Endures Forever

Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries

"Endures Forever"

July 7, 2018

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Outside my back door is a bird feeder.

~ Psalm 136:1 (ESV)

In the last two years, I have made sure this feeder is always well-stocked and has never gone dry. In truth, my feeder has provided a smorgasbord of seed, a never-emptied treasure trove of tasty treats for the cardinals, finches, sparrows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, and other winged friends that regularly, almost religiously, help themselves to the unearned bounty I have provided for them.

Now, you might think that every once in a while one or two of those feathered freeloaders might feel some kind of obligation to stop their feeding for just a second and say, "Hey, Reverend, thanks a lot for what you're doing here! We just want to let you know your efforts have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated."

A person might think that would happen, but it hasn't.

Not once, not once in these years has any of those birds said a word of gratitude. They haven't come to my window and tapped out a word of thanks in Morse code. In the Disney cartoons birds are friendly little beasties that are not above doing the dishes or cleaning the cottage or helping with housework. So far that hasn't happened to me.

On the contrary, when I come out my back door, one of the birds gives a chirp of annoyance, a squeak of indignation, a squawk of warning, and they all take off and fly elsewhere. Upon occasion, one of the braver birds will show his displeasure by landing in the closest bush and from that place of relative security, make it perfectly clear that he is offended and outraged by my unannounced interruption of his meal: the meal which I provided. I'm not above telling you this scarcity of appreciation, this shortage of thanksgiving, wears pretty thin.

I wonder what do I have to do to prove myself. What? Will these birds ever get it? Will they ever figure out I'm there to feed them, to help them, to care for them? What do I have to do to get through to them?

Quite probably, those are the same questions God has been asking about unappreciative, ungrateful, unthankful humanity.

Consider at the beginning of human history God created a perfect world. Wonderful weather, an inviting environment, fantastic food -- were just the beginning of His gifts He gave to our first ancestors. But there was more. He gave them health, and I'm not talking about reasonable health for a short span of years. I'm talking about perfect health which would have lasted forever. As far as companionship was concerned, that's where God really pulled the stops. He custom designed Adam and Eve to complement, to complete, to fulfill each other. It was fantastic!

And what was their reaction? It was not one of thanks. It still isn't.

This is why we who have been rescued and redeemed by the Christ ought to be filled with an appreciation for the Lord, which can't be contained, with praises that can't be silenced.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, for all You have done, for the Savior's sacrifice, accept the thanks of a grateful and forgiven soul. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).
In the last two years, I have made sure this feeder is always well-stocked and has never gone dry.

Lời Sống Hằng Ngày - Lệ Thuộc Hoàn Toàn

Lệ Thuộc Hoàn Toàn

Đọc: Giăng 5:16–23 | Đọc Kinh Thánh suốt năm: Gióp 34–35; Công vụ 15:1–21

Download MP3

Vì ngoài Ta các con không làm gì được. Giăng 15:5

Mẹ của Laura đang chống chọi với căn bệnh ung thư. Một sáng nọ, Laura cùng với một người bạn cầu nguyện cho mẹ mình. Bạn của cô nằm liệt giường nhiều năm vì chứng liệt não, đã cầu nguyện: “Lạy Chúa, Ngài đã làm mọi điều cho con. Xin Ngài cũng làm mọi điều cho mẹ của Laura.”

Laura hết sức cảm động khi nghe bạn “công bố sự lệ thuộc hoàn toàn” vào Chúa. Khi suy ngẫm về khoảnh khắc đó, cô nói: “Tôi có thường thừa nhận mình cần Chúa trong mọi điều không? Đó là điều tôi nên làm mỗi ngày!”

Trong những ngày sống trên đất, Chúa Jêsus liên tục bày tỏ sự lệ thuộc vào Cha Ngài. Người ta có thể nghĩ rằng vì Chúa Jêsus là Đức Chúa Trời trong thân xác con người, nên Ngài có đủ lý do để độc lập. Nhưng khi các nhà cầm quyền tôn giáo yêu cầu Ngài giải thích lý do Ngài “làm việc” trong ngày nghỉ theo luật định vì Ngài đã chữa lành cho một người trong ngày Sa-bát, Ngài đáp: “Quả thật, quả thật, ta nói cùng các ngươi, Con chẳng tự mình làm việc gì được; chỉ làm điều chi mà Con thấy Cha làm; vì mọi điều Cha làm, Con cũng làm y như vậy” (Gi. 5:19). Chúa Jêsus cũng tuyên bố Ngài lệ thuộc vào Cha Ngài!

Việc Chúa Jêsus lệ thuộc vào Cha Ngài là tấm gương vĩ đại về việc sống trong mối liên hệ với Đức Chúa Trời. Mỗi phút giây chúng ta thở đều là sự ban cho của Đức Chúa Trời và Ngài muốn chúng ta sống bằng sức lực của Ngài. Khi chúng ta sống để yêu thương và phục vụ Ngài qua sự cầu nguyện từng giây từng phút và nương dựa vào Lời Ngài, thì chúng ta đang công bố rằng mình lệ thuộc vào Chúa.

Chúa ơi, con cần Ngài trong mọi sự! Xin giúp con sống để phục vụ Ngài. Ngợi khen Ngài đã trở nên Đấng Cứu Chuộc con và là năng lực của con!

Không cầu nguyện là tuyên bố mình không cần lệ thuộc vào Chúa. Daniel Henderson

bởi James Banks

© 2018 Lời Sống Hằng Ngày
Mẹ của Laura đang chống chọi với căn bệnh ung thư.