Riverside, California, United States - Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for Wednesday, 26 March 2014 "Prone to Wander"

Riverside, California, United States - Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for Wednesday, 26 March 2014 "Prone to Wander"   
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.-—Ephesians 6:10 
When he was little, my son had a habit of wandering. One day, we were in a hotel and came to an elevator. He ran ahead to push the button. I told him, "If the elevator comes, wait until Dad gets there." Just as I arrived at the elevator, the doors were closing, and he was inside. He was gone!
I frantically pushed the button for the other elevator and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, the doors opened, and I jumped in. I went down to the lobby. He wasn't there. I ran back to the elevator, pushed every button for every floor, and as the doors opened, I would scream out his name. I didn't care about decorum. I wanted to find my son. And I found him, about three floors up, wandering around. But you know what? After that experience, he didn't wander anymore. He got separated from his father, and it was scary for him. He learned how important it was to stay close to me.
As Christians, we should want to stay as close to our Heavenly Father as possible. The Devil is a powerful adversary, and we are no match for him in our own strength. We don't want to venture out in this life in our own abilities and suffer spiritual defeat. I have a healthy respect for the Devil's ability. For that reason, I want to stay as close to the Lord as possible. I want to be strong in Him.
If ever there was a time to be walking closely with the Lord, it is now. This is not the time to be playing games with God. This is not the time to wander away.(Today's devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013)
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Now is the time to be walking closely with the Lord. Here's why.
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Today's Bible Reading:
Joshua 23:1  After many days, when Yahweh had given rest to Israel from their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2 Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and said to them, “I am old and well advanced in years. 3 You have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is Yahweh your God who has fought for you. 4 Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun. 5 Yahweh your God will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight. You shall possess their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you.
6 “Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left; 7 that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them; 8 but hold fast to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day.
9 “For Yahweh has driven great and strong nations out from before you. But as for you, no man has stood before you to this day. 10 One man of you shall chase a thousand; for it is Yahweh your God who fights for you, as he spoke to you. 11 Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God.
12 “But if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you; 13 know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.
14 “Behold, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you. All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it. 15 It shall happen that as all the good things have come on you of which Yahweh your God spoke to you, so Yahweh will bring on you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you, 16 when you disobey the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then Yahweh’s anger will be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.”
24:1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2 Joshua said to all the people, “Yahweh says, the God of Israel, ‘Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods. 3 I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his offspring,[a] and gave him Isaac. 4 I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
5 “‘I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. 6 I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea. 7 When they cried out to Yahweh, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. You lived in the wilderness many days.
8 “‘I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived beyond the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand. You possessed their land, and I destroyed them from before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, 10 but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand.
11 “‘You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand. 12 I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow. 13 I gave you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you didn’t build, and you live in them. You eat of vineyards and olive groves which you didn’t plant.’
14 “Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh. 15 If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”
16 The people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; 17 for it is Yahweh our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the middle of whom we passed. 18 Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God.”
19 Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins. 20 If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good.”
21 The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve Yahweh.” 22 Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him.”
They said, “We are witnesses.”
23 “Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.”
24 The people said to Joshua, “We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his voice.”
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 26 Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh. 27 Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all Yahweh’s words which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God.” 28 So Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
29 After these things, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old. 30 They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. 31 Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of Yahweh, that he had worked for Israel. 32 They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver.[b] They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 33 Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.
Footnotes:
a. Joshua 24:3 or, seed
b. Joshua 24:32 Hebrew: kesitahs. A kesitah was a kind of silver coin.
Psalm 44: For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. A contemplative psalm.
1 We have heard with our ears, God;
    our fathers have told us,
    what work you did in their days,
    in the days of old.
2 You drove out the nations with your hand,
    but you planted them.
You afflicted the peoples,
    but you spread them abroad.
3 For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword,
    neither did their own arm save them;
but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face,
    because you were favorable to them.
4 You are my King, God.
    Command victories for Jacob!
5 Through you, will we push down our adversaries.
    Through your name, will we tread them under who rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow,
    neither shall my sword save me.
7 But you have saved us from our adversaries,
    and have shamed those who hate us.
8 In God we have made our boast all day long,
    we will give thanks to your name forever.
Selah.
9 But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor,
    and don’t go out with our armies.
10 You make us turn back from the adversary.
    Those who hate us take plunder for themselves.
11 You have made us like sheep for food,
    and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sell your people for nothing,
    and have gained nothing from their sale.
13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
    a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.
14 You make us a byword among the nations,
    a shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 All day long my dishonor is before me,
    and shame covers my face,
16     At the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses,
    because of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this has come on us,
    yet have we not forgotten you,
    Neither have we been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
    neither have our steps strayed from your path,
19     Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals,
    and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God,
    or spread out our hands to a strange god;
21     won’t God search this out?
    For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long.
    We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Wake up!
    Why do you sleep, Lord?[a]
Arise!
    Don’t reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face,
    and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust.
    Our body clings to the earth.
26 Rise up to help us.
    Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 44:23 The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”
1 Corinthians 11:1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. 2 Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you. 3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. 5 But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved. 6 For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to be have her hair cut off or shaved, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man; 9 for man wasn’t created for the woman, but woman for the man. 10 For this cause the woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord. 12 For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God. 13 Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled? 14 Doesn’t even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God’s assemblies.
17 But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it. 19 For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you. 20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken. 22 What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.
23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. 24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.” 25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body. 30 For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. 31 For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. 33 Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.
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Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie 
P.O. Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514-4000
Phone: 1-800-821-3300
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