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Day 5 - Thursday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

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  March 5: Oddities that Make Sense Numbers 5:1–31 ; John 13:1–20; Psalm 6:1–10 Some of the Old Testament laws seem so odd that they’re difficult to understand. It’s easy for us to see why, in a day before medicine, God would send people with “a rash … a fluid discharge, and everyone … [who had touched] a corpse” outside the tribe for a period of time to prevent infection (Num 5:2). But why would God severely punish people caught in sins not (or hardly) related to possible medical issues (Num 5:5–31)? I think it’s because God understands that a culture that allows amoral behavior will become a culture that promotes it. Considering that Jesus had not yet come and sin had not yet been graciously atoned for, there was a need for a ritual that symbolized religious purity. We are meant to hate the things that people in this life condone—things that may even seem right to us at the time—for the sake of loving God’s work. When evil was present among His people, God had to take drastic...
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Day 4 - Wednesday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

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  March 4: A Prayer for Guidance Numbers 3:40–4:49; John 12:20–50 ; Psalm 5:1–12 When we feel downtrodden, it’s easy to lash out at those around us. Too often, caught in the injustice of our circumstances, we might begin to feel an unhealthy need to justify ourselves. It’s difficult to see where the lines of right and wrong fall when anger and hurt overwhelm us. The psalmist offers an alternative: turning to the God of justice for guidance, protection, and insight. Psalm 5 records a heartfelt cry. This cry is directed at the God who acts justly in a world where evil seems to win (something not always easy to comprehend). Before making a judgment, the psalmist says, “I will set forth my case to you, and I will watch” (Psa 5:3). Rather than push forward with his own agenda, he calls out for God’s justice because Yahweh is “not a God who desires wickedness” (Psa 5:4). The psalmist acknowledges God’s sovereignty and love, which is the basis for his confidence: “through the abundanc...
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Day 3 - Tuesday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

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  March 3: It May Seem Bland Numbers 3:1–39 ; John 12:1–19; Psalm 3–4 Let’s just admit it: genealogies and lists, like the one in Num 3:1–39, are the most boring elements of the Bible. But they do something for us that other formats cannot—they give us a sense of history and lineage. With a genealogy, we can do more than just trace people; we can map their relationships to others and to the events that happen through those relationships. We can also determine who was involved in those major events. Genealogies and lists give us a small glimpse into God’s providential work, even though we may not recognize them as such. God worked among the people in those lists. He chose to use them. They didn’t deserve to be used by God in mighty ways, but they were. Some of the people in Num 3:1–39 were given seemingly insignificant tasks: “The responsibility of the sons of Merari was the supervision of the frames of the tabernacle, its bars, pillars, bases, and all its vessels and all its se...
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Day 2 - Monday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

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  March 2 Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap Gal. 6:7 The most common actions of life, its every day and hour, are invested with the highest grandeur, when we think how they extend their issues into eternity. Our hands are now sowing seeds for that great harvest. We shall meet again to discuss all we are doing and have done. The graves shall give up their dead, and from the tombs of oblivion the past shall give up all that it holds in keeping, to bear true witness for or against us. Guthrie  Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997). Morning, March 2 : Go To Evening Reading “But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock.” —1 Samuel 13:20 We are engaged in a great war with the Philistines of evil. Every weapon within our reach must be used . Preaching, teaching, praying, giving, all ...
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