Max Lucado Daily: A Holy Gift
A Holy Gift
Posted: 25 Oct 2010 11:01 PM PDT
Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross. I Peter 2:24
In an act that broke the heart of the Father, yet honored the holiness of heaven, sin-purging judgment flowed over the sinless Son of the ages.
And heaven gave earth her finest gift. The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.
“My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” Why did Christ scream those words?
So you’ll never have to.
Job 28
1 "There is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
2 Iron is taken from the earth,
and copper is smelted from ore.
3 Man puts an end to the darkness;
he searches the farthest recesses
for ore in the blackest darkness.
4 Far from where people dwell he cuts a shaft,
in places forgotten by the foot of man;
far from men he dangles and sways.
5 The earth, from which food comes,
is transformed below as by fire;
6 sapphires [a] come from its rocks,
and its dust contains nuggets of gold.
7 No bird of prey knows that hidden path,
no falcon's eye has seen it.
8 Proud beasts do not set foot on it,
and no lion prowls there.
9 Man's hand assaults the flinty rock
and lays bare the roots of the mountains.
10 He tunnels through the rock;
his eyes see all its treasures.
11 He searches [b] the sources of the rivers
and brings hidden things to light.
12 "But where can wisdom be found?
Where does understanding dwell?
13 Man does not comprehend its worth;
it cannot be found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, 'It is not in me';
the sea says, 'It is not with me.'
15 It cannot be bought with the finest gold,
nor can its price be weighed in silver.
16 It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,
with precious onyx or sapphires.
17 Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it,
nor can it be had for jewels of gold.
18 Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention;
the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.
19 The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it;
it cannot be bought with pure gold.
20 "Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
concealed even from the birds of the air.
22 Destruction [c] and Death say,
'Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.'
23 God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells,
24 for he views the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
25 When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters,
26 when he made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm,
27 then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he confirmed it and tested it.
28 And he said to man,
'The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.' "
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 15:1-8
1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Declaration Of Dependence
October 26, 2010 — by Philip Yancey
Without Me you can do nothing. —John 15:5
Adults celebrate when children learn to do something on their own: get dressed, brush their teeth, tie shoelaces, ride a bike, walk to school.
As adults, we like to pay our own way, live in our own houses, make our own decisions, rely on no outside help. Faced with an unexpected challenge, we seek out “self-help” books. All the while we are systematically sealing off the heart attitude most desirable to God and most descriptive of our true state in the universe. It’s what Jesus told His disciples: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
The truth is that we live in a web of dependence, at the center of which is God, in whom all things hold together. Norwegian theologian Ole Hallesby settled on the single word helplessness as the best summary of the heart attitude that God accepts as prayer. He said, “Only he who is helpless can truly pray.”
Most parents feel a pang when the child outgrows dependence, even while knowing the growth to be healthy and normal. With God, the rules change. We never outgrow dependence, and to the extent we think we do, we delude ourselves. Prayer is our declaration of dependence upon the Lord.
Give Him each perplexing problem,
All your needs to Him make known;
Bring to Him your daily burdens—
Never carry them alone! —Adams
Pray as if your life depended upon it. It does!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 26th, 2010
What is a Missionary?
Jesus said to them again, ’. . . As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’ —John 20:21
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .” (Matthew 28:19).
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Survivors to the Rescue - #6207
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Each season in the U.S. seems to bring its beauty and its unique dangers. In the spring, think tornado, for example. In the summer and fall, some of us know what the word hurricane is all about. In the mountains in winter, it's important to be aware that with that season's snowy beauty may also come the danger of deadly avalanches. Every winter, we hear about some people who lose their lives as massive chunks of snow suddenly break loose and roar down the mountain. But every once in a while, we hear about lives saved. A few years ago, the rescuers were there not long after an avalanche, and they immediately started digging for survivors. In minutes, they pulled out one skier who was not only grateful to be saved, but in remarkably good shape for what he had been through. And the news reported that after that man was rescued, he didn't just head for a warm place to recover. He joined the rescuers, working side by side with them to save other lives. And they did!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Survivors to the Rescue."
A person is saved from a deadly situation and they instinctively go back to help save someone else. That's exactly how lives are saved eternally. The rescued are supposed to turn around and be the rescuers. When they're not, they make it out, but they leave others to perish. It's not supposed to be that way.
If someone rescued you spiritually by telling you about Jesus Christ, then the eight words in our word for today from the Word of God are personal orders from God to you. Jude, verse 23, simply says, "Snatch others from the fire and save them." The implication - you got snatched from the fire, now go back and get someone else.
That was instinctive for Andrew the day he met Christ. The Bible says, "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah'...and he brought him to Jesus" (John 1:41-42 ). And Simon became the great leader of the apostles. My guess is that when you first discovered the love of Jesus for yourself, you had that Andrew instinct. You knew you had found something you could not keep to yourself. You may not have done the best job of explaining Jesus at that point, but you just knew that people you cared about had to have the same chance that you had. That's how the rescue work of Jesus has gone on for 2,000 years - rescued people becoming rescuers of others.
But as time has gone by, have you become content to just find a warm spot among other people who are already headed for heaven; to believe the beliefs, give the money, be at the meetings, and live as if the reason you were rescued is to enjoy the fellowship of the others who've been rescued? No, you were rescued to rescue.
Oh, we have our excuses for our silence about our Savior. "I'm afraid, I'm inadequate, I'm imperfect, I don't know enough, I might mess it up." Well, look at who Jesus used to bring an entire Samaritan village to Him - a woman with the worst reputation in town, a woman who had just met Jesus, but she knew enough to say, "Come see a Man" (John 4:29 ). Come and check out Jesus. If Christ could use her to be His ambassador to her tribe, He can surely use you to be His ambassador to yours. They'll listen to you because you walk the same trail they do - much more than they might listen to some "professional rescuer" who's from outside their world.
Hundreds of people were rescued from the sinking Titanic by being put in lifeboats. But those same people refused to turn those lifeboats around to rescue the people who were in the lifejackets in the water, even though many lifeboats were half empty. And 328 people died because the people who had been rescued did nothing about the people who were dying. There are too many like them in the lifeboat "Jesus." Please don't be one of them.
