DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR MONDAY NOVEMBER 13:
WORD OF WISDOM
When you raise yourself above a servant, you have just ranked yourself above
Savior.
___
DAILY DEVOTION
Prioritizing Rest in a Busy World
He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a
while."
Mark 6:31
Rest is becoming a lost art in our modern culture. We've exchanged its
old-fashioned value for a hectic, fast-paced, breakneck speed of life, which
has slowly disintegrated our fervor and passion while simultaneously
elevating our blood pressure. Packed within each twenty-four-hour time span
is an unsustainable number of tasks we've placed upon ourselves, as well as
demands we've allowed others to deem urgent enough to place upon us as well.
And based on our fatigue and frustration, we'd give anything to offload the
burden.
But rest doesn't seem like a viable option anymore. Have we forever passed
up any kind of reality that dares to include rest as part of a typical day?
Or week? Or. month? (Or. year?)
When Jesus sent His disciples off on a specific ministry assignment in Mark
6:7-11, He didn't shield them from the fact that their journey would not be
particularly easy. People would refuse to listen to them, much less give
them hospitality. Any cause for excitement would be counterbalanced by any
number of legitimate reasons for quitting and discouragement. They would be
empowered to preach, heal, and spread the news of the kingdom, yes, but
would also be exhausted on every front-physically, emotionally, and
spiritually. And even after finally coming back home from their tiring
journey, people would still be "coming and going," enough that the disciples
"did not even have time to eat" (v. 31).
So as their first order of business upon returning, Jesus greeted them with
clear instructions: "Come. rest a while."
It wasn't a request. It wasn't a friendly suggestion. It was Jesus' command.
Here's what you're going to do, guys. They'd been through a lot. And much
more remained to be done. But for now. rest. come and rest. At least for a
little while.
Do you ever feel guilty for taking time away to regroup and recharge? Are
you saddled with a sense of wasted opportunity if every space on your
calendar is not filled? Are you afraid your world would stop turning if you
disengaged for even a few moments? Are you concerned about losing your
competitive advantage if you're not converting every moment into maximum
achievement and efficiency?
Then hear the voice of your Savior welcoming you into a place where grace
flows, where the Spirit refuels, and where mercy fixes what's been strained
and stressed by the accumulation of life's pressures. This is the space
where priorities and relationships that have been pushed out of alignment
and are in need of repair get patched up and recalibrated.
Quiet time is not an excuse for the lazy but a wise investment for the
diligent. It is for those who are committed to being active servants and
followers of Jesus Christ instead of slaves to the tyranny of urgent
busyness and activity. By prioritizing rest for ourselves and those we love,
we may just rediscover the joy we thought had been lost forever.
My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. Exodus 33:14
- He Speaks to Me -
What would a time of deliberate rest look like for you today? This month?
This year? Who are the people you can enlist to keep you accountable?
Taken from Awaken: 90 Days with the God Who Speaks by Priscilla Shirer
___
DAILY BIBLE READING
Acts 16-18New King James Version (NKJV)
Timothy Joins Paul and Silas
16 Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was
there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but
his father was Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at
Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took
him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for
they all knew that his father was Greek. 4 And as they went through the
cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by
the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened
in the faith, and increased in number daily.
The Macedonian Call
6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they
were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7 After they
had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit[a] did not
permit them. 8 So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 And a
vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded
with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10 Now after he had
seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that
the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Lydia Baptized at Philippi
11 Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace,
and the next day came to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is
the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying
in that city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went out of the
city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down
and spoke to the women who met there. 14 Now a certain woman named Lydia
heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who
worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
15 And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If
you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay."
So she persuaded us.
Paul and Silas Imprisoned
16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl
possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much
profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried
out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim
to us the way of salvation." 18 And this she did for many days.
But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in
the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very
hour. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they
seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the
authorities.
20 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, "These men, being
Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not
lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe." 22 Then the multitude
rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes
and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had laid many
stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep
them securely. 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner
prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
The Philippian Jailer Saved
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and
the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and
immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. 27
And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors
open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill
himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no
harm, for we are all here."
29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul
and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be
saved?"
31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,
you and your household." 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and
to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the
night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were
baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food
before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
Paul Refuses to Depart Secretly
35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, "Let
those men go."
36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, "The
magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace."
37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans,
and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No
indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out."
38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were
afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded
with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city. 40
So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they
had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
Preaching Christ at Thessalonica
17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to
Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his
custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from
the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to
suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach
to you is the Christ." 4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great
multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined
Paul and Silas.
Assault on Jason's House
5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious,[b] took some of the
evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an
uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the
people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some
brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the
world upside down have come here too. 7 Jason has harbored them, and these
are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another
king-Jesus." 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when
they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and
the rest, they let them go.
Ministering at Berea
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were
more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word
with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether
these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a
few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. 13 But when the Jews
from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at
Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. 14 Then immediately
the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy
remained there. 15 So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and
receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed,
they departed.
The Philosophers at Athens
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within
him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. 17 Therefore he
reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and
in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then[c]
certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said,
"What does this babbler want to say?"
Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he
preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know
what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some
strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things
mean." 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent
their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Addressing the Areopagus
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I
perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing
through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar
with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
24 "God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven
and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He
worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to
all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood[d]
every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has
determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for
Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him
we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have
said, 'For we are also His offspring.' 29 Therefore, since we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold
or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. 30 Truly,
these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere
to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the
world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given
assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while
others said, "We will hear you again on this matter." 33 So Paul departed
from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them
Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Ministering at Corinth
18 After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And
he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come
from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the
Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. 3 So, because he was of the
same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were
tentmakers. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded
both Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the
Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. 6 But when they
opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, "Your
blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the
Gentiles." 7 And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain
man named Justus,[e] one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the
synagogue. 8 Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord
with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and
were baptized.
9 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid,
but speak, and do not keep silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will
attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city." 11 And he
continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
12 When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up
against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, 13 saying, "This fellow
persuades men to worship God contrary to the law."
14 And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If
it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be
reason why I should bear with you. 15 But if it is a question of words and
names and your own law, look to it yourselves; for I do not want to be a
judge of such matters." 16 And he drove them from the judgment seat. 17
Then all the Greeks[f] took Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat
him before the judgment seat. But Gallio took no notice of these things.
Paul Returns to Antioch
18 So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren
and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his
hair cut off at Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow. 19 And he came to
Ephesus, and left them there; but he himself entered the synagogue and
reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay a longer time with
them, he did not consent, 21 but took leave of them, saying, "I must by all
means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem;[g] but I will return again to
you, God willing." And he sailed from Ephesus.
22 And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up and greeted the church,
he went down to Antioch. 23 After he had spent some time there, he departed
and went over the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all
the disciples.
Ministry of Apollos
24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and
mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. 25 This man had been instructed
in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught
accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.
26 So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla
heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more
accurately. 27 And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote,
exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly
helped those who had believed through grace; 28 for he vigorously refuted
the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
Footnotes:
a.Acts 16:7 NU-Text adds of Jesus.
b.Acts 17:5 NU-Text omits who were not persuaded; M-Text omits becoming
envious.
c.Acts 17:18 NU-Text and M-Text add also.
d.Acts 17:26 NU-Text omits blood.
e.Acts 18:7 NU-Text reads Titius Justus.
f.Acts 18:17 NU-Text reads they all.
g.Acts 18:21 NU-Text omits I must through Jerusalem.
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James VersionR. Copyright C 1982 by Thomas
Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
