LOVE'S LONG REACH

Love’s Long Reach

Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

Romans 11:33

READ PSALM 139:1–10

Mary Lee is a sixteen-foot, 3,500-pound great white shark tagged by oceanographers off the east coast of the US in 2012. The transmitter attached to her dorsal fin would be tracked by satellite when she surfaced. For the next five years Mary Lee’s movements were observed online by everyone from researchers to surfers, up and down the coast. She was tracked for nearly 40,000 miles until one day her signal stopped—probably because the battery on her transmitter expired.

Human knowledge and technology reach only so far. Those “following” Mary Lee lost track of her, but you and I can never evade God’s awareness throughout every moment of our lives. David prayed, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,” he exclaims gratefully (v. 6).

God chooses to know us because He loves us. He cares enough not only to observe our lives but also to enter into them and make them new. He drew near through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, so we could know Him in return and love Him for eternity. We can never go beyond the reach of God’s love.

By James Banks

REFLECT & PRAY

Thank You for always seeing me, Father! Help me to live today with a growing awareness of Your presence and perfect love.

How does the thought that God knows and loves us completely encourage you? How will you reach out to others with His love today?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

A simple definition of the word theology is “the study of God.” In Psalm 139, David didn’t set out to write a mini-course on theology, but his prayer-filled composition is just that. Verses 1-18 include three unique characteristics of the God of the Bible: He is omniscient (all-knowing, vv. 1-6), omnipresent (always present, vv. 7-12), and omnipotent (all-powerful, vv. 13-18). It’s staggering when we think of God in the way Psalm 139 depicts Him. The psalmist’s writing is very personal (notice the number of first-person pronouns). David doesn’t leave us with abstract thoughts about a distant God, but his reflections lead to personal application: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23-24).

To learn more about basic Christian beliefs visit christianuniversity.org/ST101. Arthur Jackson

NO EXPLANATION REQUIRED

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

NO EXPLANATION REQUIRED

READ:  Job 42:1-17

I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful

for me, which I did not know.  Job 42:3

A Christian who believed God had led him to take a daring step of faith remarked, “If God doesn’t give me success in this matter, He’’ll certainly have a lot of explaining to do!”

It’s easy to judge this man’s words, but have you ever said, “When I get to heaven, I certainly expect God to explain why some of my prayers were not answered and why tragedies were not always prevented!”

In Romans 8:28, Paul didn’t promise that all circumstances and events would be explained-if, indeed, we could comprehend the explanation!  Instead, he promised that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

The story of Job reassures us that questioning God is common to human experience.  Yet, when Job demanded that God justify His lack of intervention in his trials, He didn’t comply.  Instead, He bombarded Job with His own searching questions (Job 38-41).  The Almighty does not have to explain himself, nor is He required to reveal His grand design.  He reveals himself and His plans in His way and in His time.

Thoroughly humbled, Job admitted, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things…which I did not know.  Like Job, will you now trust God-no explanation required?   JY 

What God is doing you may not know now,

Hereafter He may tell you why;

Questions that taunt you and trouble your mind

Will someday have heaven’s reply. -Hess

When we trust God’s promises,

we won’t demand explanations.

CATCHING FOXES

Catching Foxes

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards.

Song of Songs 2:15

READ EPHESIANS 5:1–13

The first time a bat invaded our home we dismissed it as a fluke. But after a second nighttime visit, I read up on the little critters and discovered they don’t need much of an opening to pay humans a visit. In fact, if they find a gap as small as the side of a coin they’ll let themselves in.

So I loaded up my caulk gun and went on a mission. I went around the house and closed up every tiny opening I could find.

In Songs of Songs 2:15, Solomon mentions another troublesome mammal. He writes of the danger of “little foxes,” which can “ruin the vineyards.” Symbolically, he’s speaking of threats that can enter a relationship and ruin it. Now I don’t mean to offend bat-lovers or fox-lovers, but keeping bats out of the house and foxes out of the vineyard is a bit like dealing with sin in our lives (Ephesians 5:3). By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit works within us so that we don’t have to “live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). By the Spirit’s power we can resist the temptation to sin.

Praise God that, in Christ, we’re now “light in the Lord” and can live in a way that “pleases” Him (Ephesians 5:8-10). The Spirit helps us catch those little foxes.

By Dave Branon

REFLECT & PRAY

God, use Your power to give me the strength to resist sinning and damaging my relationship with You and others.

When you’re tempted to sin, how can you lean into the Holy Spirit’s power to resist it? What little foxes can the Spirit help you deal with today?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Today’s passage flows seamlessly out of chapter 4, in which Paul tells us how to live our lives in Christ. First he notes the futile thinking of those who live apart from God. “They are darkened in their understanding” (Ephesians 4:18) and so “indulge in every kind of impurity” (v. 19). But we’re to “put on the new self, created to be like God” (v. 24). This means a lifestyle of honesty and integrity, usefulness and generosity (vv. 25-28). Above all, it’s marked by kindness, compassion, and forgiveness (v. 32). Such Christlike behavior starkly contrasts with the darkness we once lived in. “As children of light” (5:8) we reflect the One who is the Light (see 1 John 1:5-7). Tim Gustafson

THE TIMELESS NAME

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

THE TIMELESS NAME

READ:  Revelations 1:8-18

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning

and the End.  Revelations 1:8

Whether the company is Twentieth Century Fox in Hollywood or Twentieth Century Data in Dallas, time has caught up with these companies and they’re a century behind.  Should they change their names?  Consultant Frank Delano says, “You can’t do business in the twenty-first century with a twentieth-century name.  You need a name that is really universal worth no limitations.”

Through the ages, Christians have known and worshiped a Savior who is not bound by time.  His name?  In Revelation 1:8, Jesus Christ identified himself by saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,…who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”  He called himself “the First and the Last” (vv. 11, 17).  And in verse 18, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.”

Do clocks and calendars leave you exhausted?  Jesus Christ is the Master of time.  Has death brought the pain of separation?  Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).  Have failures filled you with despair?  Jesus Christ is risen, the Victor over death and the grave!

It’s true.  In every century His name is universal, without limitation.  Jesus Christ is the timeless name.   DCM

Jesus Christ-a wonderful name,

Eternal, unchanging, always the same;

He’s the beginning and He’s the end,

He’s my Savior, my Lord, and my Friend. -Fitzhugh

Jesus is the Lord of time and eternity.  

EAT AND REPEAT

Eat and Repeat

We have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!

Numbers 11:6

READ EXODUS 16:14–18

When Kerry and Paul got married, neither one knew how to cook. But one night Kerry decided to try her hand at spaghetti—making so much that the couple had it for dinner again the next day. On the third day, Paul volunteered to cook, doubling the amount of pasta and sauce, hoping the huge pot would last through the weekend. As the couple sat down for dinner that night, however, it was Kerry who confessed, “I’m sick of spaghetti.”

Just imagine eating the same meal as the Israelites did—for forty years. Each morning they gathered the sweet “super food” God supplied and cooked it (no leftovers unless the next day was the Sabbath, Exodus 16:23-26). Sure, they got creative—baking it, boiling it (v. 23). But, oh, how they missed the good food they had enjoyed in Egypt (v. 3; Numbers 11:1-9), even though that nourishment had come at the high cost of cruelty and enslavement!

We too may sometimes resent that our life isn’t what it once was. Or perhaps the “sameness” of life has caused us to be discontent. But Exodus 16 tells of God’s faithful provision to the Israelites, causing them to trust and depend on His care each day.

God promises to give us everything we need. He satisfies our longings and fills up our soul with “good things” (Psalm 107:9 esv).

By Cindy Hess Kasper

REFLECT & PRAY

Father, thank You for Your promise to faithfully care for me and provide what I need.

In what ways has God provided for you in the past? What longing is keeping you from trusting Him more?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

The Hebrew word for manna means “what is it?” Manna looked like white flakes of frost on the ground and tasted “like wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:14, 31). The poetic language of Psalm 78:24 tells us, “[God] rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.” This image of manna as bread is picked up in the New Testament. In John 6, the people said it was “bread from heaven” (v. 31), then Jesus lifted this bread up to its highest level as a picture of Himself (vv. 32-33)! Christ called Himself “the bread that came down from heaven” (v. 41). Jesus said, “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die” (vv. 49-50). Bill Crowder

A NEGLECTED REMEDY

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

A NEGLECTED REMEDY

READ:  1 Kings 19:1-18

He gives His beloved sleep.  Psalm127:2

I am often asked to speak on the subject of stress.  I’m not an expert on stress, just an experienced sufferer!  I simply share counsel from God’s Word that helps me live less stressfully and more restfully.  Many listeners are desperate for any new insight I might offer.  What blank looks I sometimes get when I make this particular recommendation:  “Get more sleep!”  In their longing to deepen their experience of God’s peace, they were hoping for something more spiritual than that.

But I’m not alone in linking spirituality to sleep.  A godly Bible teacher was asked to share the key ingredient in his own life for walking in the Spirit.  He studied the Bible and prayed regularly, but his surprising reply was this:  “Get eight hours of sleep each night.”

This reply is less surprising in light of God’s initial remedy for Elijah’s stress and depression (1 Kings 19:1-18).  Twice God gave him food and undisturbed sleep before gently confronting him at Mount Horeb with His error.

Psalm 4:8 says, “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”  Sleep is not the full remedy for stress, but other solutions can become clearer to people who get adequate rest.   JY

When life is so busy and hectic and humming,

You’re uptight and frazzled and stressed;

Slow down for a while and spend time with the Savior,

And be sure to get adequate rest. -Fitzhugh

We can sleep in peace when we remember that God is awake.

A READY REMEDY

A Ready Remedy

The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

READ ISAIAH 53:1–6

Following the park guide, I scribbled notes as he taught about the plants of the Bahamian primeval forest. He told us which trees to avoid. The poisonwood tree, he said, secretes a black sap that causes a painful, itchy rash. But not to worry! The antidote could usually be found growing right next it. “Cut into the red bark of the gum elemi tree,” he said, “and rub the sap on the rash. It will immediately begin to heal.”

I nearly dropped my pencil in astonishment. I hadn’t expected to find a picture of salvation in the forest. But in the gum elemi tree, I saw Jesus. He’s the ready remedy wherever the poison of sin is found. Like the red bark of that tree, the blood of Jesus brings healing.

The prophet Isaiah understood that humanity needed healing. The rash of sin had infected us. Isaiah promised that our healing would come through “a man of suffering” who would take our sickness upon Himself (Isaiah 53:3). That man was Jesus. We were sick, but Christ was willing to be wounded in our place. When we believe in Him, we are healed from the sickness of sin (v. 5). It may take a lifetime to learn to live as those who’re healed—to recognize our sins and to reject them in favor of our new identity—but because of Jesus, we can.

By Amy Peterson

REFLECT & PRAY

Wherever sin is, Jesus is there, ready to save.

What other pictures in the natural world do you see of the salvation God offers us? What has the healing He offers meant to you?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Isaiah 53 gives us the clearest description of the sacrifice of Christ in the Old Testament, describing His rejection (vv. 1-3), His suffering in our place (vv. 4-6), His sacrificial death and burial (vv. 7-9), and His reconciling atonement and resurrection (vv. 10-12). The chapter is the last of four messianic prophecies in the book of Isaiah (42:1-9; 49:1-13, 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12) known as the “Servant Songs” because they prophetically refer to Jesus the Messiah as Servant (42:1; 49:3; 50:10; 52:13), although Jewish scholars tend to identify the Servant as Israel itself.

In the New Testament, Isaiah is quoted or alluded to sixty-two times. New Testament writers unequivocally apply quotes from Isaiah 53 to Jesus Christ (Matthew 8:17; Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37; John 12:38-41; Acts 8:32-35; Romans 10:16; 1 Peter 2:24). K. T. Sim