Daily Devotions with Greg Laurie – Friday,
10 January 2014 – “From His Perspective”
Jesus looked at them and said to them,
"With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
(Matthew 19:26)
I heard the story of an elderly minister
who liked to visit people in hospitals. He often would take along a little,
embroidered bookmark that he carried in his Bible. On the back of the bookmark
was a group of tangled threads with no apparent pattern. He would hand this
bookmark, with the back facing up, to those who were hurting or upset and say,
"Look at that and tell me what it says." As they looked at all the
tangled threads, they would say, "I have no idea what it says. It doesn't
seem to say anything."
Then he said, "Now, turn it
over." As they would flip that bookmark over, they saw the words "God
is love." The minister would say, "Many times as we look at what God
is doing, we just see tangled threads with no rhyme or reason. But from God's
perspective, He is dealing with us in love, and He knows what He is
doing."
The next time you think it's all over for
you, just remember how things turned out for Joseph in the book of Genesis.
Just remember how things turned out for Daniel — no doubt things looked pretty
grim when he was in the den of lions. It looked hopeless as well for Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-Nego when they were thrown into the fiery furnace. Things
looked pretty hopeless for Peter when he was in prison, awaiting execution. And
things certainly looked bleak for Martha and Mary when their brother died.
You see, things can look bad at one
moment, but then God will step in and turn events around. Then as time goes on,
you will look back and say, "Now I understand what God was doing."
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Today's Bible Reading:
Genesis Abraham Marries Keturah
25: Abraham took another wife, whose name
was Keturah. 2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim,
Letushim, and Leummim. 4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida,
and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5 Abraham gave all he had
to Isaac. 6 But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, while he was
still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east
country.
The Death of Abraham
7 This is the length of Abraham’s life,
one hundred seventy-five years. 8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a good
old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 9 His
sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of
Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10 the field that Abraham
purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with his wife Sarah. 11
After the death of Abraham God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled at
Beer-lahai-roi.
Ishmael’s Descendants
12 These are the descendants of Ishmael,
Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave-girl, bore to Abraham. 13
These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth:
Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma,
Dumah, Massa, 15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16 These are the
sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their
encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes. 17 (This is the length
of the life of Ishmael, one hundred thirty-seven years; he breathed his last
and died, and was gathered to his people.) 18 They settled from Havilah to
Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled down[a]
alongside of[b] all his people.
The Birth and Youth of Esau and Jacob
19 These are the descendants of Isaac,
Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years
old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram,
sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because
she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah
conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it
is to be this way, why do I live?”[c] So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23
And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”
24 When her time to give birth was at
hand, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body
like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out,
with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.[d] Isaac was sixty
years old when she bore them.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a
skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in
tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved
Jacob.
Esau Sells His Birthright
29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew,
Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “Let
me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called
Edom.[e]) 31 Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” 32 Esau said, “I am
about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me
first.”[f] So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob
gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his
way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Isaac and Abimelech
26: Now there was a famine in the land,
besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac
went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines. 2 The Lord appeared to
Isaac[g] and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall
show you. 3 Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will
bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and
I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your
offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring
all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for
themselves through your offspring, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept
my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7 When the
men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister”; for he
was afraid to say, “My wife,” thinking, “or else the men of the place might
kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she is attractive in appearance.” 8
When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked
out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelech called
for Isaac, and said, “So she is your wife! Why then did you say, ‘She is my
sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought I might die because of her.” 10
Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might
easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11
So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his
wife shall be put to death.”
12 Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in
the same year reaped a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, 13 and the man became
rich; he prospered more and more until he became very wealthy. 14 He had
possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines
envied him. 15 (Now the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth all
the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father
Abraham.) 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us; you have become too
powerful for us.”
17 So Isaac departed from there and
camped in the valley of Gerar and settled there. 18 Isaac dug again the wells
of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham; for the
Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them
the names that his father had given them. 19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in
the valley and found there a well of spring water, 20 the herders of Gerar
quarreled with Isaac’s herders, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the
well Esek,[h] because they contended with him. 21 Then they dug another well,
and they quarreled over that one also; so he called it Sitnah.[i] 22 He moved
from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called
it Rehoboth,[j] saying, “Now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be
fruitful in the land.”
23 From there he went up to Beer-sheba.
24 And that very night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your
father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make
your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So he built an altar
there, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. And there
Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar,
with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 Isaac said
to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me
away from you?” 28 They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you;
so we say, let there be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant
with you 29 so that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and
have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now
the blessed of the Lord.” 30 So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31 In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths; and Isaac set them on
their way, and they departed from him in peace. 32 That same day Isaac’s
servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and said to him,
“We have found water!” 33 He called it Shibah;[k] therefore the name of the
city is Beer-sheba[l] to this day.
Esau’s Hittite Wives
34 When Esau was forty years old, he
married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the
Hittite; 35 and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
Footnotes:
a. Genesis 25:18 Heb he fell
b. Genesis 25:18 Or down in opposition to
c. Genesis 25:22 Syr: Meaning of Heb
uncertain
d. Genesis 25:26 That is He takes by the
heel or He supplants
e. Genesis 25:30 That is Red
f. Genesis 25:33 Heb today
g. Genesis 26:2 Heb him
h. Genesis 26:20 That is Contention
i. Genesis 26:21 That is Enmity
j. Genesis 26:22 That is Broad places or
Room
k. Genesis 26:33 A word resembling the
word for oath
l. Genesis 26:33 That is Well of the oath
or Well of seven
Psalm 6: Prayer for Recovery from Grave
Illness
To the leader: with stringed instruments;
according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger,
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am
languishing;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.
3 My soul also is struck with terror,
while you, O Lord—how long?
4 Turn, O Lord, save my life;
deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of
you;
in Sheol who can give you praise?
6 I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 My eyes waste away because of grief;
they grow weak because of all my foes.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of
evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my supplication;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and
struck with terror;
they shall turn back, and in a moment be put to shame.
Luke The Mission of the Seventy
10: After this the Lord appointed
seventy[a] others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and
place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, “The harvest is
plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to
send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out
like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and
greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this
house!’ 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on
that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house,
eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid.
Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its
people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there,
and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’[b] 10 But whenever
you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say,
11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest
against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’[c] 12 I tell
you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
Woes to Unrepentant Cities
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you,
Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14
But at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
15 And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.
16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me,
and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who
sent me.”
The Return of the Seventy
17 The seventy[d] returned with joy,
saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18 He said to them,
“I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have
given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of
the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this,
that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in
heaven.”
Jesus Rejoices
21 At that same hour Jesus[e] rejoiced in
the Holy Spirit[f] and said, “I thank[g] you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have
revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.[h] 22
All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the
Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
23 Then turning to the disciples,
Jesus[i] said to them privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!
24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but
did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test
Jesus.[j] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He
said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He
answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your
neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer;
do this, and you will live.”
29 But wanting to justify himself, he
asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped
him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest
was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on
the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he
saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought
him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two
denarii,[k] gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I
come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three,
do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the
robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go
and do likewise.”
Jesus Visits Martha and Mary
38 Now as they went on their way, he
entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her
home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened
to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she
came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do
all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered
her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there
is need of only one thing.[l] Mary has chosen the better part, which will not
be taken away from her.”
Footnotes:
a. Luke 10:1 Other ancient authorities
read seventy-two
b. Luke 10:9 Or is at hand for you
c. Luke 10:11 Or is at hand
d. Luke 10:17 Other ancient authorities
read seventy-two
e. Luke 10:21 Gk he
f. Luke 10:21 Other authorities read in
the spirit
g. Luke 10:21 Or praise
h. Luke 10:21 Or for so it was
well-pleasing in your sight
i. Luke 10:23 Gk he
j. Luke 10:25 Gk him
k. Luke 10:35 The denarius was the usual
day’s wage for a laborer
l. Luke 10:42 Other ancient authorities
read few things are necessary, or only one
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Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie
P.O. Box 4000
Riverside, CA 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1(800)821-3300
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