Riverside, California, United States - Harvest Ministry with Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for Saturday, 5 July 2014 "Characterized by Joy"The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.(Romans 14:17)
Today if you were to sum up your life, what truths would you want to emphasize to your family and friends? What regrets would you have?
In Acts 20, we find the final words of Paul to the elders of the church he had started in Ephesus. Here in this chapter, he was delivering his final charge to them. As he looked back on his life, he said, "But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God" (verse 24).
There is one word from this verse I want to bring to your attention: joy. Paul was saying, "I am looking back on my life and on what I have done here. One word seems to sum it up well: joy" This word could be translated to say "exceedingly happy." This was a man who had a firsthand experience of suffering, hardship, and adversity. But in the midst of it all, he also experienced the joy of Christ bubbling up within him like an artesian well.
The fact of the matter is that the happy life is the holy life—the life that is lived for God. Joy is an operative word in the life of the Christian. Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). And Jesus not only promises us life beyond the grave, but a dimension of life on this earth that is worth living.[Today's devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013]
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A lesson in joy from someone who had firsthand experience in suffering, hardship, and adversity.
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Weekend Bible Reading:
Hosea 2:1 “Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’[Hosea 2:1 ‘Ammi’ in Hebrew]
and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’[Hosea 2:1 ‘Ruhamah’ in Hebrew]
2 Contend with your mother!
Contend, for she is not my wife,
neither am I her husband;
and let her put away her prostitution from her face,
and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 Lest I strip her naked,
and make her bare as in the day that she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and set her like a dry land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy;
for they are children of unfaithfulness;
5 For their mother has played the prostitute.
She who conceived them has done shamefully;
for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax,
my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore behold,[Hosea 2:6 “Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.] I will hedge up your way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
that she can’t find her way.
7 She will follow after her lovers,
but she won’t overtake them;
and she will seek them,
but won’t find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband;
for then was it better with me than now.’
8 For she did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,
and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time,
and my new wine in its season,
and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
and no one will deliver her out of my hand.
11 I will also cause all her celebrations to cease:
her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
12 I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me;
and I will make them a forest,’
and the animals of the field shall eat them.
13 I will visit on her the days of the Baals,
to which she burned incense,
when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels,
and went after her lovers,
and forgot me,” says Yahweh.
14 “Therefore behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 I will give her vineyards from there,
and the valley of Achor for a door of hope;
and she will respond there,
as in the days of her youth,
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16 It will be in that day,” says Yahweh,
“that you will call me ‘my husband,’
and no longer call me ‘my master.’
17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth,
and they will no longer be mentioned by name.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field,
and with the birds of the sky,
and with the creeping things of the ground.
I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land,
and will make them lie down safely.
19 I will betroth you to me forever.
Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.
20 I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness;
and you shall know Yahweh.
21 It will happen in that day, I will respond,” says Yahweh,
“I will respond to the heavens,
and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil;
and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will sow her to me in the earth;
and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’
and they will say, ‘My God!’”
3 Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.”
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer [Hosea 3:2 1 homer is about 220 liters or 6 bushels] and a half of barley. 3 I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.”
4 For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days.
4:1 Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel;
for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land:
“Indeed there is no truth,
nor goodness,
nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land will mourn,
and everyone who dwells therein will waste away.
all living things in her,
even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky;
yes, the fish of the sea also die.
4 “Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
5 You will stumble in the day,
and the prophet will also stumble with you in the night;
and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you,
that you may be no priest to me.
Because you have forgotten your God’s law,
I will also forget your children.
7 As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me.
I will change their glory into shame.
8 They feed on the sin of my people,
and set their heart on their iniquity.
9 It will be, like people, like priest;
and I will punish them for their ways,
and will repay them for their deeds.
10 They will eat, and not have enough.
They will play the prostitute, and will not increase;
because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh.
11 Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
12 My people consult with their wooden idol,
and answer to a stick of wood.
Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray,
and they have been unfaithful to their God.
13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains,
and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths,
because its shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the prostitute,
and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute,
nor your brides when they commit adultery;
because the men consort with prostitutes,
and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes;
so the people without understanding will come to ruin.
15 “Though you, Israel, play the prostitute,
yet don’t let Judah offend;
and don’t come to Gilgal,
neither go up to Beth Aven,
nor swear, ‘As Yahweh lives.’
16 For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer.
Then how will Yahweh feed them like a lamb in a meadow.
17 Ephraim is joined to idols.
Leave him alone!
18 Their drink has become sour.
They play the prostitute continually.
Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.
19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings;
and they shall be disappointed because of their sacrifices.
5:1 “Listen to this, you priests!
Listen, house of Israel,
and give ear, house of the king!
For the judgment is against you;
for you have been a snare at Mizpah,
and a net spread on Tabor.
2 The rebels are deep in slaughter;
but I discipline all of them.
3 I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute.
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God;
for the spirit of prostitution is within them,
and they don’t know Yahweh.
5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face.
Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity.
Judah also will stumble with them.
6 They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh;
but they won’t find him.
He has withdrawn himself from them.
7 They are unfaithful to Yahweh;
for they have borne illegitimate children.
Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.
8 “Blow the cornet in Gibeah,
and the trumpet in Ramah!
Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!
9 Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke.
Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.
10 The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark.
I will pour out my wrath on them like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed,
he is crushed in judgment;
Because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.
12 Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth,
and to the house of Judah like rottenness.
13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
Then Ephraim went to Assyria,
and sent to king Jareb:
but he is not able to heal you,
neither will he cure you of your wound.
14 For I will be to Ephraim like a lion,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear in pieces and go away.
I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.
15 I will go and return to my place,
until they acknowledge their offense,
and seek my face.
In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.”
Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense; 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard; 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, by various works of power, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will? 5 For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels. 6 But one has somewhere testified, saying,
“What is man, that you think of him?
Or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels.
You crowned him with glory and honor.[Hebrews 2:7 TR adds “and set him over the works of your hands”]
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”[Hebrews 2:8 Psalm 8:4-6]
For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we don’t see all things subjected to him, yet. 9 But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone. 10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers,[Hebrews 2:11 The word for “brothers” here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”] 12 saying,
“I will declare your name to my brothers.
Among of the congregation I will sing your praise.”[Hebrews 2:12 Psalm 22:22]
13 Again, “I will put my trust in him.”[Hebrews 2:13 Isaiah 8:17] Again, “Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me.”[Hebrews 2:13 Isaiah 8:18] 14 Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For most certainly, he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring[Hebrews 2:16 or, seed] of Abraham. 17 Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
Hosea 6:1 “Come, and let us return to Yahweh;
for he has torn us to pieces,
and he will heal us;
he has injured us,
and he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us.
On the third day he will raise us up,
and we will live before him.
3 Let us acknowledge Yahweh.
Let us press on to know Yahweh.
As surely as the sun rises,
Yahweh will appear.
He will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rain that waters the earth.”
4 “Ephraim, what shall I do to you?
Judah, what shall I do to you?
For your love is like a morning cloud,
and like the dew that disappears early.
5 Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets;
I killed them with the words of my mouth.
Your judgments are like a flash of lightning.
6 For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant.
They were unfaithful to me, there.
8 Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity;
it is stained with blood.
9 As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man,
so the company of priests murder on the path toward Shechem,
committing shameful crimes.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing.
There is prostitution in Ephraim.
Israel is defiled.
11 “Also, Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you,
when I restore the fortunes of my people.
7:1 When I would heal Israel,
then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,
also the wickedness of Samaria;
for they commit falsehood,
and the thief enters in,
and the gang of robbers ravages outside.
2 They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their own deeds have engulfed them.
They are before my face.
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers.
They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring,
from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine.
He joined his hand with mockers.
6 For they have prepared their heart like an oven,
while they lie in wait.
Their baker sleeps all the night.
In the morning it burns as a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven,
and devour their judges.
All their kings have fallen.
There is no one among them who calls to me.
8 Ephraim, he mixes himself among the nations.
Ephraim is a pancake not turned over.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength,
and he doesn’t realize it.
Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him,
and he doesn’t realize it.
10 The pride of Israel testifies to his face;
yet they haven’t returned to Yahweh their God,
nor sought him, for all this.
11 “Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding.
They call to Egypt.
They go to Assyria.
12 When they go, I will spread my net on them.
I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.
I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.
13 Woe to them!
For they have wandered from me.
Destruction to them!
For they have trespassed against me.
Though I would redeem them,
yet they have spoken lies against me.
14 They haven’t cried to me with their heart,
but they howl on their beds.
They assemble themselves for grain and new wine.
They turn away from me.
15 Though I have taught and strengthened their arms,
yet they plot evil against me.
16 They return, but not to the Most High.
They are like a faulty bow.
Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue.
This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.
8:1 “Put the trumpet to your lips!
Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house,
because they have broken my covenant,
and rebelled against my law.
2 They cry to me, ‘My God, we Israel acknowledge you!’
3 Israel has cast off that which is good.
The enemy will pursue him.
4 They have set up kings, but not by me.
They have made princes, and I didn’t approve.
Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols,
that they may be cut off.
5 Let Samaria throw out his calf idol!
My anger burns against them!
How long will it be until they are capable of purity?
6 For this is even from Israel!
The workman made it, and it is no God;
indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
7 For they sow the wind,
and they will reap the whirlwind.
He has no standing grain.
The stalk will yield no head.
If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up.
Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey wandering alone.
Ephraim has hired lovers for himself.
10 But although they sold themselves among the nations,
I will now gather them;
and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones.
11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,
they became for him altars for sinning.
12 I wrote for him the many things of my law;
but they were regarded as a strange thing.
13 As for the sacrifices of my offerings,
they sacrifice flesh and eat it;
But Yahweh doesn’t accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity,
and punish their sins.
They will return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
but I will send a fire on his cities,
and it will devour its fortresses.”
9:1 Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations;
for you were unfaithful to your God.
You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them,
and the new wine will fail her.
3 They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land;
but Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh,
neither will they be pleasing to him.
Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;
all who eat of it will be polluted;
for their bread will be for their appetite.
It will not come into Yahweh’s house.
5 What will you do in the day of solemn assembly,
and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?
6 For, behold, they have gone away from destruction.
Egypt will gather them up.
Memphis will bury them.
Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver.
Thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of visitation have come.
The days of reckoning have come.
Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool,
and the man who is inspired to be insane,
because of the abundance of your sins,
and because your hostility is great.
8 A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God.
A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths,
and hostility in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves,
as in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity.
He will punish them for their sins.
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season;
but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing,
and became abominable like that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird.
There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.
12 Though they bring up their children,
yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left.
Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place;
but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.
14 Give them—Yahweh what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 “All their wickedness is in Gilgal;
for there I hated them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house!
I will love them no more.
All their princes are rebels.
16 Ephraim is struck.
Their root has dried up.
They will bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.”
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him;
and they will be wanderers among the nations.
Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus; 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house. 3 For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God. 5 Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, 6 but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end. 7 Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today if you will hear his voice,
8 don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers tested me by proving me,
and saw my deeds for forty years.
10 Therefore I was displeased with that generation,
and said, ‘They always err in their heart,
but they didn’t know my ways;’
11 as I swore in my wrath,
‘They will not enter into my rest.’”[Hebrews 3:11 Psalm 95:7-11]
12 Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; 13 but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end: 15 while it is said,
“Today if you will hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”[Hebrews 3:15 Psalm 95:7-8]
16 For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn’t all those who came out of Egypt by Moses? 17 With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
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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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