Riverside, California, United States - Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for Thursday, 20 March 2014 "Back to the Basics"

Riverside, California, United States - Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for Thursday, 20 March 2014 "Back to the Basics"
Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.-—Revelation 2:5, NLT
I once knew a guy who was always in the best shape. I would run into him a couple of times a year, and he always made a point of reminding me that he was in much better shape than I was. He would tell me, "Feel my arm!"
"That's hard."
"That's right!" he would say. But he was a stressed-out and very intense kind of guy. One day, I received the sad news that he had died of a heart attack. This guy had it all together on the outside. He was in great shape. But inside, his heart was in trouble.
You may have the greatest physique — bulging biceps and rippling abs. You may have incredible stamina and energy. But what good is all of that if you have heart disease? You might be able to flex your spiritual muscles in front of other people. You might say, "Look at my schedule! Look at all that I am doing for God. Look at what I have done. Listen to my accomplishments." That's good as far as it goes. But it falls short of revealing the whole picture.
When Jesus told the believers at Ephesus they had left their first love, He was getting to the heart of the matter, the root of success or failure in the Christian life. He was saying, "You are leaving this first love. You are neglecting these basic things." That is when the Christian life becomes drudgery. That is when you start saying, "There are so many rules. There are so many restrictions. I want to live as I please. I want to be free."
When you begin to think like this, you are leaving your first love. 
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The heart of the matter, the root of success or failure in the Christian life, comes down to this.
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Today's Bible Reading:
Joshua 7:1  But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against the children of Israel. 2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land.”
The men went up and spied out Ai. 3 They returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Don’t let all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Don’t make all the people to toil there, for there are only a few of them.” 4 So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. 5 The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them, and they chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water. 6 Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before Yahweh’s ark until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. 7 Joshua said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan! 8 Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! 9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?”
10 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that? 11 Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff. 12 Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.
13 “Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.”
14 “‘In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which Yahweh selects shall come near by families. The family which Yahweh selects shall come near by households. The household which Yahweh selects shall come near man by man. 15 It shall be, that he who is taken with the devoted thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of Yahweh, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’”
16 So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel near by their tribes. The tribe of Judah was selected. 17 He brought near the family of Judah; and he selected the family of the Zerahites. He brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man, and Zabdi was selected. 18 He brought near his household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected. 19 Joshua said to Achan, “My son, please give glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done! Don’t hide it from me!”
20 Achan answered Joshua, and said, “I have truly sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel, and this is what I have done. 21 When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels[a] of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.”
22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent. Behold, it was hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. 23 They took them from the middle of the tent, and brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel. They laid them down before Yahweh. 24 Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you today.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. 26 They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Yahweh turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called “The valley of Achor” to this day.
8:1 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed. Take all the warriors with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”
3 So Joshua arose, with all the warriors, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night. 4 He commanded them, saying, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 5 I and all the people who are with me will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them. 6 They will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, ‘They flee before us, like the first time.’ So we will flee before them, 7 and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city; for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand. 8 It shall be, when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do this according to Yahweh’s word. Behold, I have commanded you.”
9 Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night. 10 Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. 11 All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and came near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai. 12 He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 13 So they set the people, even all the army who was on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley. 14 When the king of Ai saw it, they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn’t know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 15 Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. 16 All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 17 There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El who didn’t go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.
18 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.”
Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. 19 The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it. They hurried and set the city on fire. 20 When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. The people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers. 21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai. 22 The others came out of the city against them, so they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. They struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. 23 They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
24 When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword. 25 All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. 26 For Joshua didn’t draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 27 Israel took for themselves only the livestock and the goods of that city , according to Yahweh’s word which he commanded Joshua. 28 So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day. 29 He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.
30 Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, on which no one had lifted up any iron. They offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. 33 All Israel, their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the priests the Levites, who carried the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel. 34 Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua didn’t read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.
Footnotes:
a. Joshua 7:21 a shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces
Psalm 69: For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David.
1 Save me, God,
    for the waters have come up to my neck!
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.
    I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary with my crying.
    My throat is dry.
    My eyes fail, looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.
    Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty.
    I have to restore what I didn’t take away.
5 God, you know my foolishness.
    My sins aren’t hidden from you.
6 Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies.
    Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
    Shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
    an alien to my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of your house consumes me.
    The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and I fasted,
    that was to my reproach.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
    I became a byword to them.
12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me.
    I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time.
    God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink.
    Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15 Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me,
    neither let the deep swallow me up.
    Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
16 Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good.
    According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
17 Don’t hide your face from your servant,
    for I am in distress.
    Answer me speedily!
18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it.
    Ransom me because of my enemies.
19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
    My adversaries are all before you.
20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
    I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
    for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me gall for my food.
    In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table before them become a snare.
    May it become a retribution and a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see.
    Let their backs be continually bent.
24 Pour out your indignation on them.
    Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate.
    Let no one dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have wounded.
    They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
27 Charge them with crime upon crime.
    Don’t let them come into your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
    and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am in pain and distress.
    Let your salvation, God, protect me.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song,
    and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 It will please Yahweh better than an ox,
    or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
32 The humble have seen it, and are glad.
    You who seek after God, let your heart live.
33 For Yahweh hears the needy,
    and doesn’t despise his captive people.
34 Let heaven and earth praise him;
    the seas, and everything that moves therein!
35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah.
    They shall settle there, and own it.
36 The children also of his servants shall inherit it.
    Those who love his name shall dwell therein.
1 Corinthians 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife. 2 You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you. 3 For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? 7 Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners; 10 yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortionists, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world. 11 But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”[a]
Footnotes:
a. 1 Corinthians 5:13 Deuteronomy 17:7; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21; 24:7
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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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