TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Ruth 2:1-16; 4:1-13
If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm. - Psalm 37:23
TODAY IN THE WORD
Rental centers have been popular for a long time. Many people who cannot afford to buy merchandise, or who choose not to buy it, rent items such as furniture, appliances, and electronic equipment. Now, some centers even rent engagement ringsjust the thing for people who aren’t sure of their commitment.commitment is something a person makes until he or she finds something better. Boaz of Bethlehem offers a refreshing contrast to the shallowness of many modernday commitments. 1). In Ruth 2 he also reveals himself to be a person of integrity and generosity, taking a protective stance toward Ruth and making sure she was provided for in the gleaning and at mealtime. It’s also obvious that Boaz had the spiritual sensitivity to realize and appreciate what Ruth had done in leaving her homeland. He praised her, not just for remaining loyal to Naomi, but also for her commitment to the God of Israel (2:11-12).as loyal and faithful as Ruth, a worthy partner for this woman of noble character (Ruth 3:11). Made aware of his responsibility to act as kinsman-redeemer for his deceased relative Elimelech, Boaz wasted no time in pursuing the right course. and there was nothing wrong with that. But, Boaz also had a higher motive, that of securing the property of his late relatives and providing for their widows. this other man had accepted the responsibility, Boaz would have been content (Ruth 3:12-13). along with her, he became a part of the Messianic line, helping to preserve the thread of ’s promise.Would we be willing to pursue an issue to a right and fair resolution, even if it meant personal disappointment for us?Boaz’s favor without his having to resort to manipulation or deal-making. We don’t always know what the pay-off will be for doing the right thing. But we can be sure that God will honor us when He is free to take delight in our way, as today’s verse promises. This is a good verse to memorize today and to live by every day.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Genesis 32:22-32
I am setting before you today a blessing...if you obey the commands of the LORD. - Deuteronomy 11:26-27
TODAY IN THE WORD
Last summer, more than thirty years after his heroism, a former army helicopter pilot was awarded Americas highest aviation medal. Walter Schramm was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross at a U.S. Army base in Germany in recognition of his actions on November 14, 1965, during the first major U.S. battle of the Vietnam War.Schramms case, the delay was due to an oversight. God sometimes takes time to settle His accounts too, but the delay isnt due to any oversight on His part. He has sovereign reasons for the way He deals with us.Abraham and Isaac, Jacob knew that the way of obedience to God brings blessing, while disobedience brings trouble. Instead of trusting God with his life, Jacob had called on his old nature to deceive his brother Esau and set in motion a long chain of events.years, during which time Jacob experienced Gods blessing but also His hand of discipline. However, when it came time for Jacob to face God and to face himself, there was no way to get around the confrontation.ideas, which is where God wanted him. During their famous all-night wrestling match, God asked Jacob for his name (v. 27). By simply answering Jacob, the patriarch was forced to admit his deceitful nature because his name reflected his character. By the time God touched his hip, Jacob was at the end of himself spiritually and physically.response, God gave him a new name and a new life, and Jacob left that place never to be the same again. ready to face God, deal with the past, and look to Him for blessing and a new start.Every believer wrestles with God at some point in life. Unlike Jacob, we dont always see our wrestling matches through to the end. It could be that God wants us to pray more about a stubborn person or situation, trust Him a while longer with a physical or financial need, or spend more time in His presence before receiving the guidance we seek. Examine your relationship with the Lord to see if He is waiting for your openness of spirit in order to deal with an issue in your life.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Kings 22:1
- 23:3
TODAY IN THE WORD
At the tender age of fourteen, Etienne Bacrot recently became the youngest chess grandmaster ever. Bacrot first encountered the game when he was only four years old. Speaking of that early experience, the young grandmaster said, I just sat down, looked, and understood. He cant beat the world chess champion yet, but Bacrot says he is getting closer. chess board, the throne of Judah. Even though he was only a child, Josiah had a heart for God and was passionate for both personal and national righteousness. was only sixteen when he began to seek the Lord, and that he was only twenty years old when he began purging Judah of the idols that his father Amon and grandfather Manasseh had worshiped.erected pagan idols within its walls. told the king. Josiah's predecessors had evidently destroyed all the copies of God's law. It had been a long time since God's people had consulted His Word.good young king immediately sought out the advice of Huldah, a respected prophetess in Jerusalem, who delivered God's message of judgment upon Judah.response to his humility and repentance (2 Kings 22:19-20). He led the people in renewing God's covenant, and he went on to pursue further spiritual reforms.Josiah would not see the judgment of Judah. process which resulted in conquest and exile for Judah. By his righteous life and courageous leadership, Josiah forestalled judgment and brought a generation of peace to his people.Josiah made a great start in his walk with the Lord, but the best part is that he didnt just coast the rest of the way on the strength of his earlier achievements.the zeal they used to have for the Lord? That's evidence of someone who is coasting along, living off yesterday's victories. It can happen to anyone, but it's not what God wants. Today, ask Him to help you keep growing in your walk with Him.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Isaiah 6:1-8
Here am I. Send me! - Isaiah 6:8
TODAY IN THE WORD
Children often live in make-believe worlds. They pretend to be school teachers, or doctors, or mothers. And anyone who's ever been around a child at play has had to play make-believe right along with them. You sit in a desk that's much too small, humbly accepting the bad grades the teacher gave you for misspelling wordseven if the teacher doesn't know how to read yet.It's one thing to play make-believe as a child. It's another to live in a world of unreality.happens when God becomes remote from our daily experience and our view of His holiness and purity becomes blurred by the fog of everyday life. The cure for this malaise is a new vision of the God we serve.accept and wanted to prepare the prophet for His service. Isaiah demonstrated the kind of committed response that has distinguished many of our biblical subjects this month.because he had experienced God's cleansing. Anyone who saw what Isaiah saw that day in the temple would have been overcome with a sense of personal sinfulness, just as he was. t that Isaiah was a great sinner. It was that he stood in the presence of the God who is infinitely holy (v. 5). Even the angelic creatures who proclaim Godholiness were awe-inspiring. I am ruined! Unless God were to forgive our sin, we would in fact be eternally ruined. But God cleansed Isaiah of his sin. Only then was the prophet ready to go to speak God's message.about our sin, He is ready to be serious with us about the work He wants to do through us.The importance of even one believer's living faithfully before God is illustrated in the book of Ezekiel.could halt the nation's moral decay. Because he found none, God's word of judgment fell. exciting and sobering to think that one person could make all the difference in a family or even in a community. If you want to be that person, tell your desire to God today.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Acts 8:26-40
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations. - Matthew 28:18-19
TODAY IN THE WORD
In 1947, the astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was scheduled to teach an advanced seminar at the University of Chicago. He was living in Wisconsin at the time and doing important research but agreed to drive the 100 miles twice a week to teach. The professor carried on with his plans, even though only two students enrolled in the course. He gave them his best, and ten years later these two students won the Nobel Prize in physics, rewarding Dr. Chandrasekhar's work. Dr. Chandrasekhar himself won the award in 1983. t seem to make sense at the moment but that prove their worth later in history. The Holy Spirit's command to Philip to leave Samaria and go down to the desert might fall under that category. twelve disciplessee Acts 6:5), was at the center of a magnificent revival in a city of Samaria (Acts 8:4-25) when the order came. He was one of the believers scattered by persecution in Jerusalem as Saul stirred up fierce opposition against the church.Spirit was doing such a wonderful work in Jerusalem and the church was growing at an almost unbelievable rate.determined that it was time for the Word to go to the ends of the earth, He allowed persecution to arise, scattering the disciples. grumbling. Then, the Spirit commanded Philip to head south, out into the middle of nowhere. It was there that Philip met the reason for his trip, the Ethiopian official whose heart was open to the gospel. and, through him, helped carry the gospel into a new area of the world. Even then, the Spirit wasnfinished with Philip, catching him away and sending him on another preaching tour (Acts 8:39-40).Philip is another great example of what one believer can do when he or she is willing to be used by the Lord. (Acts 6:3). Is there anything happening in your life that can only be explained as the Holy Spirit working within you? Take inventory today and if necessary repeat the commitment you made yesterday. God is eager to use you!

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Kings 5:1-19
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise. - Psalm 8:2
TODAY IN THE WORD
Eugene Field was a popular poet and author whose late nineteenth-century works included the well-known children's story Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Field's work primarily dealt with the world of children, and he became known as the poet of childhood. Field's writings came from his own experience, since he had eight children of his own. It's pretty obvious that Eugene Field knew how to listen to children. The army commander Naaman from Aram (another name for modern-day Syria) learned to listen to a child and received a miraculous healing as a result.an otherwise obscure action by bands of raiders from Aram. The writer notes that on one of these raids, a girl from Israel was captured and given to Naaman's wife as her servant. Considering that she was forcibly taken from her home and made to serve in a pagan nation, this girl showed remarkable faith in God and a real spirit of concern for Naaman (v. developed leprosy. His prospects for the future were probably zero from a medical and social standpoint, since leprosy was basically incurable and so dreaded that it doomed its victim to the life of an outcast.greatness of her God and who knew where to find His prophet. Evidently our nameless heroine had not allowed her captivity to embitter her toward God or her captors.of their wealth and power and a single servant girl along with the prophet Elisha? Because these two trusted in God, they wound up wielding the power while the great and mighty were as helpless as children.conviction once he had been healed (v. 15). Naaman took back with him to Aram a load of dirt from Israel and a faith in Israel's God, the result of a servant girl who trusted God. We are left to wonder what happened to this girl when Naaman got home. Did he reward her, or maybe even give her freedom? All we know is that she did what God wanted her to do. society. God doesn't always tell us what the outcome will be when we obey Him. But He does call us to be faithful in our obedience and to leave the outcome to Him. Read 1 Corinthians 4:2, and then make this verse your prayer today.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Acts 16:11-15
Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you. - Mark 5:19
TODAY IN THE WORD
One of the most refreshing traits of brand new Christians is their eagerness to tell other people what God has done for them. It's the most natural thing in the world for someone who has just met Christ to tell others how they can meet Him too. And the most logical place to start telling people about Christ is at home.spread the good news to the people closest to them. Today and tomorrow we will read about two of these new believers, both in the same chapter of Acts: Lydia and the jailer at Philippi.Philippi was a Roman colony in Macedonia, an area in eastern Europe. These few verses tell us a lot about Lydia and reveal why she deserves to be included among those who illustrate what God can do with one person who is dedicated to Him.place where she heard Paul preach the gospel was a location outside the city where it was known that people gathered for prayer (v. 13). on the day Paul and his companions arrived. Luke called her a worshiper of God (v. 14), a term for Gentiles who followed the God of Israel.and she received the gospel. The salvation of her household was accomplished so quickly that Luke did not even tell how it happened. Lydia may have invited Paul to her home so he could share the gospel with her household, much as Cornelius did with Peter (Acts 10).Philippi. She was probably a wealthy person, judging by the popularity of the purple cloth she sold and the fact that her house could accommodate gatherings of the believers (Acts 16:40). household salvation. It takes only one faithful member to influence a household for Christ.Being a witness at home is not only a natural place to start, but it's also makes a great proving ground for the reality of our faith.gives you a chance to write a new chapter in your Christian life as you trust God to help you reach your unsaved loved ones. Why not begin making this a priority today by praying for one family member who needs Christ?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Acts 16:16-34
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be savedyou and your household. - Acts 16:31
TODAY IN THE WORD
Lydia wasn't the only person in Philippi whose household God wanted to save. During the same missionary visit to this important city, Paul and his ministry companions ran afoul of people who had the disgusting business of using a demon-possessed slave girl to practice fortune-telling.the city magistrates and charged them with anti-Roman practicesa serious charge in a city like Philippi, a colony of Rome. missionaries and their confinement in the Philippian jail. It was there that their lives and the purposes of God crossed paths with a man identified only as the jailer. to guard [Paul and Silas] carefully (v. 23) as if they were dangerous criminals. He responded by locking them in the deepest part of the prison. It's possible that the jailer knew who his prisoners were. He may have heard about the incident of the slave girl, especially since she followed Paul for many days, shouting, These men...are telling you the way to be saved (v. 17). that he cared. Certainly he had dealt with other beaten and bloody men, since flogging was a common punishment. He may have had the same unfeeling spirit as did the Roman soldiers who conducted many crucifixions.The earthquake shook him out of bed and put him on his knees. He also knew the right question to ask after Paul had assured him that no prisoners had escaped (v. 30).the Bible. The man believed, and then like Lydia, he made a difference in his own house by gathering his family to hear the message Paul spoke. One person can do a lot when the gospel takes root in his or her heart. The jailer's conversion and the salvation of his family came at considerable expense to Paul in terms of his adverse circumstances and the beating he endured. It's easy to see how God used Paul's suffering for good. If youre in the middle of trouble or pain right now, what God is doing in your life may not be clear. But if you are willing to let Him use your trial for His purpose, tell Him so today. He may want to open someone else's heart to Christ through you!

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Acts 9:36-43
Stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. - Titus 3:8
TODAY IN THE WORD
During the days of the Depression Era, a New York Con-gressman named Sol Bloom made it a practice each morning to drop pennies, nickels, and dimes along the way as he walked up the steps to the Capitol building. When the congressional doorkeeper asked Bloom about it one day, he explained, Let the little children find them when they come to see the Capitol. In this Depression, someone has to show them that good things can happen.scattered good works among the poor and needy to such an extent that she became locally famous for doing good. This is an unusual account, because Tabitha was already dead by the time she was introduced into the story of Acts (vv. 36-37). Everything we know about her came from the testimony of people who had been touched by her life. It's obvious that Tabitha's death was a blow to the disciples in Joppa. The testimony of Scripture is that she was a giving person who shared whatever she had with those who were most in need. Although we don't know if Tabitha was a widow herself, she had a great ministry to the widows in Joppa through her ability as a clothesmaker. heart and hands of the church from that day until today. Even though she never spoke a word that was recorded, her life was a testimony that did not need words to support it. was arranging events that would further the growth of the church, something Tabitha would no doubt have approved of as a loyal disciple of Jesus Christ. Her death became the occasion for a great miracle by Peter, and as a result many people believed in the Lord (v. 42).Christians in Joppa. Their desperate call for help to Peter reflects the depth of their grief and of their sense of loss over Tabitha's death. And God's mercy in raising her from the dead testifies to the quality of her life.Sometimes the best testimony that can be given about us is what other people say.spoke of her love and service. Would you like to have that kind of impact on the world? You can! It comes from a daily commitment to love and serve the Lord. Pray that this day and this week will find you faithful.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Judges 4:1-24
May they who love [the LORD] be like the sun when it rises in its strength. - Judges 5:31
TODAY IN THE WORD
U.S. Army General George Patton was an avid student of history who believed that a knowledge of the past is critical to success in the present. After the D-Day invasion in 1944, Patton wrote to General Dwight Eisenhower that a German battle plan from World War I could be used successfully against Germany in Normandy. About a month later, a plan like the one Patton had described brought victory. That same year, Patton wrote to his son: To be a successful soldier, you must know history.important, she knew the God of history. This knowledge was crucial during the time of the judges, since Israel kept forgetting God and His deliverance and kept falling into sin and bondage. cycle in the seven cycles of oppression and deliverance that comprise the book of Judges. Deborah was a judge and the acknowledged leader of the nation. Her skill in this role is evident from the writer's note that the Israelites brought their cases to Deborah (v. 5).battle plan to defeat Jabin, the Canaanite king who had cruelly oppressed Israel for twenty years (v. 3). Deborah called for a man named Barak to be her army commander and told him what God had commanded.assured of God's presence by having Deborah accompany him into battle. Deborah agreed to go, and at the crucial point in the battle it was her command that sent Barak into battle (v. 14). Barak did perform valiantly in the battle and shared a place in the array of Bible heroes (Heb. 11:32). But it was the judge and prophetess Deborah who stood in the gap at a low point in Israel's history, and her deliverance resulted in forty years of peace (Judges 5:31).Throughout the Bible, God's people are commanded to remember the ways He has shown His love and faithfulness in the past.presence todayand that knowledge will help keep us from trying to take things into our own hands. examples of God's faithfulness to you. Write them down and then share them with your family or friends today, and you can all praise God together. Then reaffirm your trust in Him for 1998.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Kings 17:1-24
Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is truth. - 1 Kings 17:24
TODAY IN THE WORD
The Bible teaches us again and again that God delights in using weak people and hopeless situations to accomplish His will. Today's verse tells us why: when we see how God works through people and events that are weak by the world's estimate, there is no room for human boasting. In these cases, the glory goes to God alone.the Israelite girl who was a slave in the house of Naaman. Ruth was an outsider who had nothing going for her except her faith in Israel's God. And who is weaker in the worldpecking order than a slave?God can use. She was definitely weak in terms of her finances and her standing in the culturea starving woman with a son she could not provide for (v. 12). And like Ruth, she was an outsider, a Gentile who normally would have no reason to expect the God of Israel to act on her behalf.Israel. All that mattered was that Elijah needed a place to stay and that this woman evidently was open to the one true God (v. 12). (v. 13), was followed by instructions to feed him first and thus prove her reliance on God. The prophet also gave her a wonderful promise of God's miraculous provision as long as the drought lasted. went away and did as Elijah had told her (v. 15), giving us another encouraging example of what God can do when one person decides to put some shoe leather to her faith. The greater payoff for this widow's trust was when her son died and was brought back to life by Elijah. pointed to her to show that God would use outsiders to uphold His glory when Israel proved unfaithful (Luke 4:24-26). In this way, the widow's testimony still speaks to us.God can do more with what we have than we ever could, if we will honor Him first.giving principle that the Bible calls first fruits. That is, God wants us to give Him the first portion from our resources, not the leftovers. This applies to our money, but it also includes our time and service. Are you a first fruits giver?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Genesis 39:1-12
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
TODAY IN THE WORD
In September of 1995, the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters suffered a rare defeat on the basketball court as they toured Europe with a team made up of several former professional basketball stars. The 91-85 defeat in Vienna, Austria, ended the team's winning streak at twenty-four-years, that is, not games! The team had won an astounding total of 8꼝 straight exhibition games since their last defeat before that in January, 1971.league, a 24-year winning streak puts them on a totally different level. Genesis 37 until he winds up second-in-command in Egypt, Joseph rings up an unbroken, 20-year record of faithfulness to God that is nothing short of astounding. He is one of the few peopleDaniel is another-about whom nothing negative is recorded in the Bible.in his life that reveals his godly character. The attempt by Potiphar's wife to seduce Joseph came after the terse note that Joseph had been taken down to Egypt(v. 1). could have reasoned that since he was innocent of any wrongdoing and far from home, he was entitled to accept this woman's immoral offer and enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin for awhile. position to resist the advances of his master's wife and had no alternative but to submit. living in God's presence and was responsible to Him (v. 9). Because Joseph took this stand at a time when he was alone, God's larger purpose for his captivity was realized when he eventually became the rescuer of his entire family. remember that with God, the last chapter of the story isn't told until He tells it. We hope you are on a real winning streak when it comes to your daily Bible study and prayer time with Today in the Word.maybe you have good intentions and plans, but feel as if they get away from you. Whatever the case, we urge you to finish strong this monthand maybe to take a little extra time to go back to pick up any days you may have missed.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Acts 4:32-37
Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today. - Hebrews 3:13
TODAY IN THE WORD
When the American poet Edgar Guest was a young man, his first child died, plunging him into despair. The morning after his devastating loss, Guest went to the drugstore owned by his neighbor. The man called Guest into his office in the back, put both hands on the young writer's shoulders and expressed his compassion. He ended by saying: I want you to know that if you need anything at all, come to me. What's mine is yours.like the silhouette of a lonely tree against a crimson sunset.church faced a need, Barnabas not only said, What's mine is yours. He also followed up on his pledge by selling a piece of land and bringing the proceeds to the apostles. What an encouragement that must have been!stepped up to do the job. He became such a valued member of the Jerusalem church that when people began turning to Christ at Antioch, the apostles sent Barnabas to check things out (Acts 11:22-24). than that, he went to Tarsus to persuade a convert named Saul to come to Antioch. After a year of effective ministry together, Barnabas and Saul were ready for the first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-3). Saul, now called Paul, got ready to head out on the second missionary trip. Barnabas could not bring himself to discard Mark, even though Mark had failed on the first trip. blessed that decision. Paul even spoke later of Mark as a valued ministry companion (2 Tim. 4:11). discourager. Since there are never too many encouragers around, your encouraging words and actions are always needed.Everybody would like to have a person like Barnabas for a friend. But we also need to make sure the encouragement is flowing both ways. an opportunity to use you for the encouragement of others. Are your friendships balanced or one-sided? Are your friends doing all the encouraging and giving, or are you also ministering to them and their needs? This review is worth an investment of your time this weekend.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Acts 9:1-9
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. - Ephesians 3:7
TODAY IN THE WORD
When Jesus Christ decided it was time to go after the man who would, more than any other, lay the foundation of His church, He knew exactly what it would take to get Saulattention. The Lord had to knock Saul's legs out from under him and put him on his face before the great persecutor was ready to become the great apostle.by-four just to get the creature to look at him. The man who was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians was going with his face and his heart set like flint. that the followers of Jesus were dangerous threats. But this banty rooster of an educated Jew was really the dangerous one. He had approved of Stephen's stoning (Acts 8:1), and his threats against the other disciples were murderous (Acts 9:1). The voice from heaven didn't mince words, either. In response to Saul's question, Jesus identified Himself by name and revealed the true nature of Saul's persecution. By harming Jesus disciples, Paul was persecuting Jesus Himself.but when he got his Christology straight, he made an instant and complete turnabout. In Acts 22, where Paul recounted the story of his conversion, he said that he asked Jesus, What shall I do, Lord? (v. 10). architect of the church, and the one whose writings form the backbone of Christian theology.Although we tend to put him in a higher league, Paul was the one who constantly reminded us that he was simply a sinner who had experienced God's grace and had gladly given up everything to follow Jesus. And he has called us to do the same. The problem with studying a sterling example like Paul is that too many of us figure that since we can't be like him, we can't do much.that he could reproduce a bunch of little Pauls, but so that we would be brought to the place of total surrender to Christ. Wherever you are on that journey today, determine that in 1998 you will not settle for anything less than full obedience to Christ.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Luke 5:1-6:16
I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? - Luke 6:9
TODAY IN THE WORD
The opening line of the Charles Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, paints a picture of extremes. The people of the day insisted that it was either the best of times or the worst of times, but nowhere in the middle. He wrote, “Some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Jesus was received in similar all-or-nothing fashion. Today, we're introduced to His closest disciples who were willing to leave everything to follow Him. And in contrast, we also witness the religious establishment as their impatience boils over into rage, leading them to plot against Him. His miracles and teachings divided people drastically.

The miraculous catch of fish resulted in an even stronger allegiance from Peter, James, and John. This was not their first experience with Christ, but it marked a turning point in the nature of their roles with Him. The abundant catch would have equaled several weeks of hard work for those men, but they didn't even stop to cash in on their newly caught wealth. They came ashore and “left everything” (5:11).

The more well-known Jesus became, the more people were drawn to Him. Some came to be healed, going to great lengths to see the one they knew had not only the power to heal them, but also the authority to forgive them (5:24). Some people were amazed, but others weren't happy about this at all.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were watching the dismantling of their own religious empire. Compassion was being valued higher than Sabbath restrictions. Sinners were suddenly treasured dinner guests. Tax collectors, zealots, and traitors were becoming elite followers of the most popular teacher in the land. The Greek word translated furious in the niv (6:11) indicates rage bordering on insanity. For them, it was the worst of times.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Before Jesus selected His twelve apostles, leaders who would receive an elevated level of responsibility and education from Christ, He spent an entire night in prayer. When you have an important decision to make, don't simply ask God to give you wisdom as you strategize in meetings or brainstorming sessions. Devote a major block of time to prayer and prayer alone—no good decision will ever come from ignoring God.