The Daily Bible Readings for THURSDAY, August 27, 2020

The Daily Readings

THURSDAY, August 27, 2020

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45b; Exodus 2:23-24; Ephesians 5:1-6

The Holy Bible, King James Version (KJV)

Today's Verse-of-the-Day: Isaiah 26:3

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Today's Readings:

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45b

Remembering Moses

1 O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.

2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.

3 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.

4 Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore.

5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;

6 O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen.

23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

24 And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies.

25 He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.

26 He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen.

45b Praise ye the Lord.

Exodus 2:23-24

God hears the cry of Israel

2:23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Ephesians 5:1-6

Do not be deceived by empty words

5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

Optional parts of the readings are set off in [square brackets.]

The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel lessons are from The Holy Bible, King James Version (KJV).

The Daily Bible Readings are selected from the Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, a three-year cyclical lectionary. We are currently in Year A. Beginning with the first Sunday of Advent in 2020, we will be in Year B. The year which ended at Advent 2019 was Year C. These readings complement the Sunday and festival readings: Thursday through Saturday readings help prepare the reader for the Sunday ahead; Monday through Wednesday readings help the reader reflect and digest what they heard in worship. Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts. www.commontexts.org
The Daily Readings for THURSDAY, August 27, 2020
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45b; Exodus 2:23-24; Ephesians 5:1-6 (KJV)

The Daily Prayer for THURSDAY, August 27, 2020

The Daily Prayer

THURSDAY, August 27, 2020

In his book The City of God, Augustine of Hippo wrote, “The heavenly city, while it sojourns on earth, calls citizens out of all nations and gathers together a society of pilgrims of all languages. In its pilgrim state the heavenly city possesses peace by faith; and by this faith it lives.”

Steadfast God, perhaps one of the greatest mysteries is why you continue to entrust the work of your kingdom into our clumsy hands. But we are forever grateful that you do not want to change the world without us. May we become the church you dream of. Amen.

Ichthus Ministries Daily Devotions — Peter Was a Good Student

Peter Was a Good Student

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to You." But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Then Jesus told His disciples, "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

— Matthew 16:21-28

Interesting. Right before this passage, Peter declares to Jesus that "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," and Jesus tells Peter "on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (see Matthew 16:16-18). At this point, Peter must have been feeling pretty good about himself: "Sounds like these many months of following Jesus are going to pay off. With Jesus' flair for words, and my skill in management and crowd control, we can launch our plan for world domination, by announcing that Jesus is the Messiah—maybe even later this week!"

Well, Peter—having seen Jesus at work—might have predicted that things wouldn't turn out quite as he hoped. And true to form, they wouldn't be turning out that way this time either. After giving Peter nothing less than "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," Jesus "strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ" (Matthews 16:19a, 20). So, even before Peter steps into the limelight, Jesus pivots.

Rather than riding high on His fame and glory, Jesus shows His disciples that He will suffer miserably at the hands of the elders, chiefs priests, and scribes. And not just that—if that wasn't bad enough—He will be killed. But just as quickly as He took the wind out of Peter's sails with this grim news, Jesus fills them again: on the third day He will be raised.

This is the message for us today, too. Jesus came not to set up an earthly kingdom, but to save us from "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2b). By His death and resurrection, He has freed us from our bondage to sin and the works of darkness and called us "into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9b).

How well Peter learned these truths over time! By God's abundant grace, may we do the same.

Heavenly Father, increase our faith in Jesus' wonderful love for us. Thank You. Amen.

Paul Schreiber

Reflection Questions:

1. Which characters in the Bible most inspire you? Make you angry? Confuse you?

2. How do you think you would have handled hearing that Jesus was going to have to suffer and even be killed?

3. Peter was a bold character all the way around (faithful declaration, bitter denial); how do you think God used this quality in Peter's ministry?

Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).
Which characters in the Bible most inspire you? Make you angry? Confuse you?

Standing Strong Through the Storm — GOD’S ETERNAL LOVE

GOD’S ETERNAL LOVE

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”

— Jeremiah 31:3

Yesterday we learned the first prison lesson from Pastor Okuk Ojula who was incarcerated on false charges for three and a half years in a federal prison in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

When Jim Cunningham was able to visit him in the prison, he told Jim that before the prison experience, he had centered his life on serving the Lord, pursuing his education to the highest level (he has an MA in economics from the University of Reading-UK), doing research work and other good things to help people. But he had never thought of imprisonment as having any spiritual or practical value. He commented, “Time was very precious to me and I never thought of wasting it in prison sitting for nothing under a hostile situation.”

But God taught Pastor Okuk several lessons. The second one is that the depth of God’s love for us is eternal. He says, “I was in prison for my protection. God put me in prison beforehand to escape the massacre of the elites and the educated people of my tribe in the Gambella region—the incident of December 2003 that shook the media world.”

Genocide Watch reported that at least 416 Anuak people were massacred in December 2003 in Gambella led by Ethiopian government troops in uniform, but they were joined by other local tribal people from highland areas. Between 3000 and 5000 additional Anuak refugees fled into Sudan as refugees.

The pretext for these massacres was the ambush of a van on December 13th by an unidentified gang who murdered its eight occupants, who were U.N. and Ethiopian government refugee camp officials. There is no evidence that the killers were Anuak. The Ethiopian troops responded by murdering hundreds of Anuak civilians in Gambella and surrounding areas. They also burned their homes and raped the women.

Sources indicated that those targeted particularly were educated Anuak men; a tactic often intended to render a group leaderless and defenseless. To this day hundreds of Anuak Christians are still listed as “missing.”

Pastor Okok is convinced that his imprisonment in Addis was God’s love and protection because if he had been at home, he would have been a prime target because of his education.

RESPONSE: Today I will walk in the assurance of God’s love and His positive actions on my behalf even when they do not seem to be favorable.

PRAYER: Pray for those brothers and sisters experiencing injustice without the understanding of God’s purposes.

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

Men's Devotional Bible — The Reality of Revelry

The Reality of Revelry

2 Samuel 22:1–7

Recommended Reading: Exodus 15:1–21; Psalm 18:1–50; Luke 1:46–55; Acts 16:16–40

“Music is an outburst of the soul.”

While this expression came from 19th-century English composer Frederick Delius, it could easily describe King David’s attitude toward worship.

The people around David probably grew accustomed to his musical outbursts. After all, it was King David—much to the chagrin of Saul’s daughter—who “[danced] before the LORD with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14). Moreover, David wrote many of the psalms. We can imagine the shepherd-king in his bedchamber at night strumming his harp and composing another song to the Lord. Yet David was hardly a soloist in the family of God.

The whole Bible reverberates with the songs of people so enraptured by God’s work that their day-to-day lives gave way to melody. Moses and Miriam harmonized praise after God had led his people out of Egypt (see Exodus 15:1–21). Solomon crooned his way through Song of Songs, celebrating the marriage relationship between a husband and wife. Isaiah offered a prophetic song from the coming choir of the new Jerusalem (see Isaiah 26). Mary, when told that she would give birth to the Son of God, lifted a song to the child’s Father in heaven (see Luke 1:46–55). Paul and Silas shouted their praise, and God split the walls of their cellblock (see Acts 16:25–26). The Bible is full of the songs of God’s people.

What does this Biblical legacy of song say about us? We sing, as Moses, David and Mary sang, because God is worthy of song. When David opened his song (see 2 Samuel 22), the attributes of God came streaming out of the king’s mouth so quickly that he barely formed sentences—my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge.

Like David, may we be so overcome by the knowledge of God that our natural response is to burst forth in song. May we sing from a heart-knowledge of God—longing after him with our greatest affections and deepest desires.

To Take Away

• When in your life have you so keenly sensed God’s presence that you could have burst forth into song?
• How would you describe or rate your heart-knowledge of God?
• What steps can you take to deepen your delight in the character of God?

“Music is an outburst of the soul.”

John Piper Devotional — Jesus Will Trample All Our Enemies

Jesus Will Trample All Our Enemies

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

— 1 Corinthians 15:24

How far does the reign of Christ extend?

Verse 25 says, “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” The word ALL tells us the extent.

So does the word EVERY in verse 24: “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”

There is no disease, no addiction, no demon, no bad habit, no fault, no vice, no weakness, no temper, no moodiness, no pride, no self-pity, no strife, no jealousy, no perversion, no greed, no laziness that Christ does not aim to overcome as the enemy of his honor.

And the encouragement in that promise is that when you set yourself to do battle with the enemies of your faith and your holiness, you will not fight alone.

Jesus Christ is now, in this age, putting all his enemies under his feet. Every rule and every authority and every power will be conquered.

So, remember that the extent of Christ’s reign reaches to the smallest and biggest enemy of his glory. It will be defeated.
How far does the reign of Christ extend?

Un dia a la Vez — La pobreza del alma

La pobreza del alma

Cumple los mandatos del Señor tu Dios [...] Así prosperarás en todo lo que hagas y por dondequiera que vayas.

— 1 Reyes 2:3

Sin duda, todos sabemos que hay ricos y pobres. Las clases sociales han existido toda la vida.

En el mundo se acepta muy bien esta frase que hasta forma parte de una canción: «Cuanto tienes cuanto vales». No obstante, cuando tú y yo conocemos el camino, la verdad y la vida, nos damos cuenta de que estábamos muy equivocados.

El Señor en su Palabra nos dice que cuando lo aceptamos a Él y lo reconocemos como nuestro Salvador, nos convertimos en hijos de Dios y, a su vez, coherederos con Cristo. Además, nos dice que será nuestro Proveedor y nuestro Guardador, prometiéndonos prosperarnos y bendecirnos.

En ninguna parte de la Palabra se habla que debemos permanecer en pobreza o que debemos llegar a un estado de conformismo. Sin embargo, en mi viaje misionero pude ver de cerca, y sé que pasa en todo el mundo, que hay personas que aunque son libres porque conocieron a Jesús, viven con una mentalidad de pobreza absoluta. Creen que al estar así en medio del abandono van a agradar más a Dios o le van a conmover su corazón.

¡Qué equivocados están! A Dios lo mueve la fe y nuestros pasos confiados en Él. Lo mueve, como ya dije, la obediencia.

Por eso hoy te invito a que te sacudas de la tierra de la pobreza, pues Dios quiere bendecir tu vida. Te invito a que renuncies a estructuras que te hacen pensar que no se puedes ser tan próspero como Jesús. Abandónate en sus brazos y déjate consentir por tu Padre celestial.

Un Día a la Vez Copyright © by Claudia Pinzón
En ninguna parte de la Palabra se habla que debemos permanecer en pobreza o que debemos llegar a un estado de conformismo.

Devocional CPTLN — Pedro fue un buen alumno

Pedro fue un buen alumno

Desde entonces Jesús comenzó a explicar a sus discípulos que él debía ir a Jerusalén y padecer mucho a manos de los ancianos, de los principales sacerdotes y de los escribas, y morir y resucitar al tercer día. Pedro lo llevó aparte y comenzó a reconvenirlo: «Señor, ¡ten compasión de ti mismo! ¡Que esto jamás te suceda!» Pero él se volvió y le dijo a Pedro: «¡Aléjate de mi vista, Satanás! ¡Me eres un tropiezo! ¡Tú no piensas en las cosas de Dios, sino en cuestiones humanas!» A sus discípulos Jesús les dijo: «Si alguno quiere seguirme, niéguese a sí mismo, tome su cruz, y sígame. Porque todo el que quiera salvar su vida, la perderá; y todo el que pierda su vida por causa de mí, la hallará. Porque ¿de qué le sirve a uno ganarse todo el mundo, si pierde su alma? ¿O qué puede dar uno a cambio de su alma? Porque el Hijo del Hombre vendrá en la gloria de su Padre con sus ángeles, y entonces pagará a cada uno conforme a sus obras. De cierto les digo que algunos de los que están aquí no morirán hasta que hayan visto al Hijo del Hombre venir en su reino.»

— Mateo 16:21-28

Interesante. Justo antes de este pasaje, Pedro le dice a Jesús: "Tú eres el Cristo, el Hijo del Dios viviente", y Jesús le dice a Pedro: "sobre esta roca edificaré mi iglesia, y las puertas del infierno no prevalecerán contra ella" (ver Mateo 16:16-18). ¡Qué bien debe haberse sentido Pedro! Seguramente pensó que todos esos meses siguiendo a Jesús valdrían la pena. Con el talento de Jesús con las palabras y su habilidad en el control de multitudes podrían lanzar un plan para dominar el mundo, anunciando que Jesús era el Mesías.

Pero si se hubiera fijado en la manera de obrar de Jesús, se habría dado cuenta que las cosas no iban a salir como él esperaba. Después de darle a Pedro nada menos que "las llaves del reino de los cielos", Jesús "encargó estrictamente a los discípulos que no le dijeran a nadie que Él era el Cristo" (Mateo 16:19a, 20). En vez de buscar su fama y gloria, Jesús les muestra a sus discípulos que habría de sufrir miserablemente a manos de los ancianos, los jefes de los sacerdotes y los escribas. Y aún más; como si eso no fuera suficientemente malo, también lo iban a matar. Pero tan rápido como quitó el viento de las velas de Pedro con esa triste noticia, Jesús las llena nuevamente al decirles que al tercer día resucitará.

Este es el mensaje para nosotros hoy también. Jesús no vino para establecer un reino terrenal, sino para salvarnos del "príncipe del poder del aire, que es el espíritu que ahora opera en los hijos de desobediencia" (Efesios 2:2b). Con su muerte y resurrección, Jesús nos ha liberado de nuestra esclavitud al pecado y las obras de las tinieblas y nos ha llamado "a su luz maravillosa" (1 Pedro 2:9b).

¡Qué bien aprendió Pedro estas verdades con el tiempo! Por la abundante gracia de Dios, hagamos lo mismo.

ORACIÓN: Padre celestial, aumenta nuestra fe en el maravilloso amor de Jesús por nosotros. En su Nombre. Amén.

Paul Schreiber

Para reflexionar:

* ¿Cómo habrías reaccionado al escuchar a Jesús decir que tendría que sufrir e incluso morir?

* Pedro fue un personaje audaz en todos los sentidos. ¿Cómo crees que Dios usó esa cualidad en su ministerio?

© Copyright 2020 Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones. Que a través de estos devocionales, la Palabra de Dios te refresque en tu diario caminar.
¿Cómo habrías reaccionado al escuchar a Jesús decir que tendría que sufrir e incluso morir?

Хлеб наш насущный — Спасайте слабых

Спасайте слабых

Читать сейчас: Псалом 81:3-4 | Библия за год: Псалтирь 119-121; Римлянам 8:22-39

Скачать MP3

Избавляйте бедного и нищего; исторгайте его из руки нечестивых.

— Псалом 81:4

Что вы выберете: выходные на горнолыжном курорте в Швейцарии или спасение детей в Праге? Обычный человек по имени Николас Уинтон выбрал последнее. В 1938 году на горизонте замаячила война между Чехословакией и Германией. После того как Николас посетил лагерь для беженцев в Праге, где в ужасных условиях находилось множество евреев, он почувствовал побуждение помочь несчастным. Николас собрал деньги на то, чтобы переправить сотни детей из Праги в Великобританию под опеку британских семей до начала Второй мировой войны.

Его поступок – пример исполнения призыва из Псалма 81: «Давайте суд бедному и сироте» (Пс. 81:3). Асаф, автор этого Псалма, побуждал свой народ защищать попавших в беду: «Избавляйте бедного и нищего; исторгайте его из руки нечестивых» (ст. 4). Подобно тому как Николас Уинтон без устали боролся за спасение детей, псалмопевец вступался за тех, кто не мог сам постоять за себя: бедных, сирот и вдов, которые нуждались в справедливости и защите.

Куда бы ни посмотрели сегодня, мы увидим людей, оказавшихся в нужде из-за стихийных бедствий, вооруженных конфликтов и других трудностей. Мы не в силах решить все проблемы, но можем молитвенно размышлять над тем, как помочь людям в трудных обстоятельствах, которые Бог допускает в жизни.

В каких срочных нуждах других людей вы можете оказать помощь? Как Бог особенным образом приготовил вас для спасения или помощи другим?

Любящий Бог, открой мне глаза на нужды окружающих людей.

автор: Линда Вашингтон

© 2020 Хлеб Наш Насущный
Что вы выберете: выходные на горнолыжном курорте в Швейцарии или спасение детей в Праге?