Max Lucado Daily: He Gives Us What We Need
One morning Denalyn was with me in the car. "I'm about to remind you why you married me," I told her as we drew near to the intersection. "See that long line of cars? See that humdrum of humanity? It's not for me…hang on!" I swerved from the six-lane onto the one-lane and shared with my sweetheart my secret expressway to freedom.
"What do you think?" I asked, awaiting her worship.
"I think you broke the law," she responded.
"What?" I asked incredulously.
"You just went the wrong way on a one-way street!" she answered.
I did. She was right. I had missed the "do not enter" sign.
Before coming to Christ, we all had our share of shortcuts. What we consider shortcuts God sees as disasters. He doesn't give laws for our pleasure. He gives them for our protection. He knows what we need!
from Lucado Inspirational Reader
1 Peter 1
New International Version (NIV)
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
Be Holy
13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”[a]
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.[b] 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”[c]
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Footnotes:
1 Peter 1:16 Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2
1 Peter 1:22 Some early manuscripts from a pure heart
1 Peter 1:25 Isaiah 40:6-8 (see Septuagint)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Fear the Lord
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. 16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. 20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. 21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Loved To Love
What does the Lord your God require of you, but . . . to walk in all His ways and to love Him. —Deuteronomy 10:12
November 1, 2013 — by Julie Ackerman Link
What does the Lord your God require of you, but . . . to walk in all His ways and to love Him. —Deuteronomy 10:12
“A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.” I saw this quotation, attributed to the Wizard of Oz, on a wall plaque in a gift shop.
The Wizard of Oz may be a good story, but it’s not a reliable source of spiritual information. God said something quite different. According to Him, the greatest commandment is to love—to love Him first and then others (Mark 12:29-31). Scripture says nothing about expecting to be loved in return. In fact, Jesus stated the opposite in His most famous sermon: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (Matt. 5:11-12).
When it comes to love, the important thing we need to know is this: All love starts with God (1 John 4:19). As Moses told the Israelites, God delighted in them to love them (Deut. 10:15), and because of that they were to love others, even strangers (v.19). God’s intent is that the people who receive His love will become the conduit of His love to others.
Apart from God—who Himself is love—none of us could truly love or be loved (1 John 4:7-8).
“Love seeketh not her own,” and so
He did not stay as God above,
But chose a manger and a cross
To show that He was Love. —Wilmshurst
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. —1 John 4:8
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 1, 2013
“You Are Not Your Own”
Do you not know that . . . you are not your own? —1 Corinthians 6:19
There is no such thing as a private life, or a place to hide in this world, for a man or woman who is intimately aware of and shares in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. God divides the private life of His saints and makes it a highway for the world on one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves. We are called into intimacy with the gospel, and things happen that appear to have nothing to do with us. But God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way. If you refuse, you will be of no value to God in His redemptive work in the world, but will be a hindrance and a stumbling block.
The first thing God does is get us grounded on strong reality and truth. He does this until our cares for ourselves individually have been brought into submission to His way for the purpose of His redemption. Why shouldn’t we experience heartbreak? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down at the door of God’s purpose and enter a slow death through self-pity. And all the so-called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, “Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.” If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Surviving The Floods - #6995
As late as mid-August people in 24 states were watching the water rise. I mean, for so many months flash flood warnings or watches, and the rain just kept falling. We were in some of those monsoons. In a nearby community, the water rose a foot every ten minutes. I'd never heard of anything like that. I mean, there was barely time to get out.
Every time floods like these hit, so many of the resulting deaths didn't have to be. Because people drive across a flooded road, thinking they can make it, underestimating the power of that water to carry them and their vehicle away.
Of course time after time, we've heard the weatherman say: "Turn around. Don't drown." But inevitably, some people don't turn around. And they drown.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Surviving the Floods."
I've seen too many people I care about make that same mistake in their personal lives; underestimating the current and getting swept away.
That's how so many marriages have taken a painful hit or maybe even a fatal hit. Because someone thought they could just flirt a little...get a little "Hey, I've still got it" thrill...get closer and closer to someone who, you know, "really understands me." Suddenly - but not suddenly - a spouse has been betrayed, trust has been shattered, and a family is in danger of being washed away.
Or the flood can come from what was, at first, just a small compromise of integrity. Selling out just a little to land that deal or to get ahead, spinning a couple of lies to cover your tracks, avoid conflict or get to a goal. But forgetting that "tangled web we weave" when we start to deceive. Ultimately we end up trapped in the web we wove.
Taking on commitments that require you to neglect your family, saying yes to the party where you could wander out of bounds, just a couple of curious clicks to see what that titillating website shows. All part of believing that old self-deception that has sunk so many good people, "I can handle it."
No, we can't. We overestimate ourselves and we underestimate the current. In our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Corinthians, chapter 10 beginning at verse 12, the God who loves us warns us: "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall." And then 2 Thessalonians 5:22 says, "so avoid every kind of evil."
The swirling waters of temptation look deceptively safe. But the Bible graphically reveals the disaster that lurks in that desire. It says, "After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:15 ). In other words, sin always kills - always.
There are people listening who know the truth of that all too well. And the sad reality is that sin always takes you farther than you ever thought you'd go, keeps you longer than you ever thought you'd stay, and costs you more than you ever thought you would pay.
Thank God, the flood that carries us farther and farther downstream doesn't have to be the end. Not if there's a rescue. And there has been for millions of us, because the God that we've pushed away loves us too much to lose us. He sent the one "Swift Water Rescuer" who could pull us out. Jesus jumped into the depths of sin's destructive hell-bound power to save us, to forgive us, to literally change our final destination from hell to heaven.
That's why there was a cross. It took Jesus dying for me to live. "The Lord Jesus Christ (the Bible says) gave Himself for our sins to rescue us" (Galatians 1:3 ). With Him in my life, I don't have to be what I've always been, because the Man who conquered death gives me His power to turn around and not drown.
I still remember the day that I realized He was reaching for me. And I grabbed His hand. I'm safe now. I'm safe forever! It could be that what you're feeling in your heart right now is Jesus reaching for you to rescue you. If you're ready to grab His hand, I'd love to help you get started with Him. Would you just meet me at ANewStory.com and turn around. Don't drown.
