Max Lucado Daily: Put On Christ
Put On Christ
Posted: 22 Sep 2010 11:01 PM PDT
“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Galatians 3:27 NKJV
You read it right. We have “put on” Christ. When God looks at us He doesn’t see us; He sees Christ. We “wear” Him. We are hidden in Him; we are covered by Him. As the songs says, “Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”
Presumptuous, you say? Sacrilegious? It would be if it were my idea. But it isn’t; it’s His.
Job 4
Eliphaz
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 "If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
But who can keep from speaking?
3 Think how you have instructed many,
how you have strengthened feeble hands.
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;
you have strengthened faltering knees.
5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?
7 "Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8 As I have observed, those who plow evil
and those who sow trouble reap it.
9 At the breath of God they are destroyed;
at the blast of his anger they perish.
10 The lions may roar and growl,
yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
11 The lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 "A word was secretly brought to me,
my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
14 fear and trembling seized me
and made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face,
and the hair on my body stood on end.
16 It stopped,
but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
and I heard a hushed voice:
17 'Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 If God places no trust in his servants,
if he charges his angels with error,
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay,
whose foundations are in the dust,
who are crushed more readily than a moth!
20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;
unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,
so that they die without wisdom?' [c]
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Proverbs 12:17-22
Proverbs 12:17-22 (NIV)Pr 17 A truthful witness gives honest testimony, but a false witness tells lies. 18 Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. 19 Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment. 20 There is deceit in the hearts of those who plot evil, but joy for those who promote peace. 21 No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble. 22 The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.
Cutting Remarks
September 23, 2010 — by Joe Stowell
There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health. —Proverbs 12:18
The writer of Proverbs describes an unwise person as “one who speaks like the piercings of a sword” (12:18). Our tongues can be like a multi-bladed Swiss Army knife when it comes to the variety of ways that we cut and destroy each other.
Unhealthy attitudes of anger, irritation, frustration, and impatience—even disappointment, stress, guilt, and insecurity—all contribute to our damaging speech. And as we cut with our words, we wound and divide friendships and relationships. It’s no wonder that the infamous list of seven things that are an abomination to the Lord includes anyone who “sows discord among brethren” (Prov. 6:16-19).
How do we stay off that list? For starters, we need to watch what we say. Gossip and slander are out, and words that hurt instead of heal are not welcome. Boasting, lying, and all the rest of the ways we use words to hurt and divide need to be gone as well. In their place, words that extend love and the healing power of forgiveness, mercy, and truth should rule our words and relationships. After all, where would we be if Jesus hadn’t spoken words of forgiving love and grace to us?
So, put the “knife” away and use your words to help and heal.
Lord, put a seal upon my lips,
Help me to guard with care
The things I say and swift repeat;
O tongue of mine, beware! —Bosch
Our words have the power to build up or tear down.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 23rd, 2010
The Missionary’s Goal
He . . . said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . . ’ —Luke 18:31
In our natural life our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him?”. . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . .” (Ephesians 4:13), not simply to our own idea of what the Christian life should be. The goal of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord.
In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him. Nothing ever diverted our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go “up to Jerusalem.”
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master” (Matthew 10:24). In other words, the same things that happened to our Lord will happen to us on our way to our “Jerusalem.” There will be works of God exhibited through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude while the rest will show total ingratitude, but nothing must divert us from going “up to [our] Jerusalem.”
“. . . there they crucified Him . . .” (Luke 23:33). That is what happened when our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that event is the doorway to our salvation. The saints, however, do not end in crucifixion; by the Lord’s grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword should be summed up by each of us saying, “I too go ’up to Jerusalem.’ “
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Person Behind The Words - #6184
Thursday, September 23, 2010
They call it the "terrible twos" because of the new challenges a toddler presents as they hit that two-year mark and they issue their first declarations of independence. But we're not getting many "terrible" reports about our two-year-old granddaughter. If there is any terrible, it's being eclipsed by her "terrific twos." One exciting thing about two is the incredible word explosion that goes on. Our little princess knows so many words now, and she's really a talker - which is really a strange mutation in our family. Sometimes, she seems to know not only the words, but even some pretty important meaning behind the words. She's been known to sit down right next to her daddy as he's reading his Bible with her Bible open, as well. And she knows what that book is called. She says "Bible." But more and more now, when she picks up her Bible, she says two words that she knows go together, "Bible...Jesus."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Person Behind The Words."
Those words are always supposed to go together. Because ultimately our Bible reading isn't supposed to be about a book. It's about a person. It's about Jesus. Much like when I used to read love letters from my wife-to-be. I read those same words over and over again, not because there was any new information, but because I wasn't just with a letter. When I read what she wrote to me, I was with the person who wrote it until I could be "with" with her in person.
That's how it's supposed to be when we pick up God's love letter to us - the Bible. We're not with a book. We're with the person who wrote it to us, and that changes everything. Sometimes we get into the rut of thinking, "It's my Bible reading time again." And frankly, we're not all that excited about it. It's like our Christian duty. And all too many times, the Bible just sits there as we run through all the "real important" other things we have to do.
When you read God's Word, it should be something like the picture God gives us in Luke 10 , beginning with verse 39. It's our word for today from the Word of God. Martha has invited Jesus to have dinner with her and her sister, Mary. The Bible says, "Mary...sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made." Martha pipes up and criticizes Mary for not running around like she is. But Jesus says, "Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her." Jesus of course, wasn't condoning laziness. He was applauding the priority of loving Him over serving Him...of spending time with Him over doing things for Him. Yes, our love will result in serving and doing things for Him, but it has to be anchored in spending time with Him.
Your Bible reading time needs to be the time each day that you "sit at the Lord's feet, listening to what He says." David called God's Word "the law from your mouth" and he said it was precious to him (Psalm 119:72 ). You read the words of the Bible as if Jesus is sitting across from you saying those words to you, because those are His words to you.
So when you go through a day without time in God's Word, it's not the Bible you're leaving there - it's Jesus. The Bible doesn't care if you show up. Jesus does. That's why you need to make your time with Him and His Word the highest priority of your personal schedule - the sun around which all the other planets of your day must revolve.
Jesus wept over His people one day and He expressed His sadness about the number of times He wanted to have time with them but, in His words, "you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37 ). I wonder if He's been saying that about you. It's time to recover your time with Jesus from the margins of your life and put it back in the center. Put Him back in the center. And when you pick up His Book, remember - "Bible...Jesus."
