Max Lucado Daily: God's Eternal Plan
When our oldest daughter was two, I lost her in a department store. I panicked! All of a sudden only one thing mattered-I had to find Jenna. Shopping was forgotten. The list of things I came to get was unimportant. I yelled her name. What people thought didn't matter. Every ounce of energy had one goal: to find my lost child. I did, by the way. She was hiding behind some jackets.
No price is too high for a parent to pay to redeem his child. No energy is too great. No effort too demanding. A parent will go to any length to find his or her own. So will God. Mark it down. God's greatest creation is not the flung stars or the gorged canyons. It's his eternal plan to reach his children. Heaven and earth know no greater passion than God's personal passion for you and your return!
From And the Angels Were Silent
Ezra 9
Ezra’s Prayer About Intermarriage
After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. 2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”
3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.
5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed:
“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
8 “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place[h] in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. 9 Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.
10 “But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands 11 you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. 12 Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’
13 “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. 14 Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? 15 Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Revelation 3:1-6
To the Church in Sardis
“To the angel[a] of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Footnotes:
Revelation 3:1 Or messenger; also in verses 7 and 14
Revelation 3:1 That is, the sevenfold Spirit
Insight
Today’s reading takes the spiritual temperature of the Christian church in Sardis. This city contained devotees of many pagan gods and goddesses. This might have been a contributing factor to the spiritual lethargy in some of the members of the church (vv.1-3), yet a remnant had a vital spiritual walk (vv.4-5). A worldly environment does not need to determine the way a believer lives. Spiritual vitality is an individual choice of yielding to God’s transforming work.
Character Or Reputation?
February 13, 2014 — by David C. McCasland
You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. —Revelation 3:1
Legendary basketball coach John Wooden (1910–2010) believed that character is far more important than reputation. “Your reputation is what you’re perceived to be by others,” Coach Wooden often told his players, “but your character is what you really are. You’re the only one that knows your character. You can fool others, but you can’t fool yourself.”
In the book of Revelation, we find the words of the risen Christ to seven churches in Asia. To the church in Sardis, Jesus said, “I know your works, that you have a name [reputation] that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1). The Lord knew the truth about them, and no doubt deep down they knew it too. Jesus told them to wake up and strengthen the spiritual life inside them that was about to die (v.2). He urged them to remember the truth they had received, obey it, then turn around and start moving in a new direction (v.3).
When the Lord shows us what’s wrong in our lives, He always provides a remedy for change. When we turn from our sins, He forgives and strengthens us to start over.
How liberating to exchange a false spiritual reputation for the true, life-giving character that comes from knowing Christ our Lord!
Men talk too much of gold and fame,
And not enough about a name;
And yet a good name’s better far
Than all earth’s glistening jewels are. —Guest
The true test of our character is what we do when no one is watching.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 13, 2014
The Devotion of Hearing
Samuel answered, ’Speak, for Your servant hears’ —1 Samuel 3:10
Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, “You are My friends . . .” (John 15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don’t even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.
The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God’s message to me. What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don’t want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don’t hear Him. The attitude of a child of God should always be, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Hummingbird Believers - #7069
Thursday, February 13, 2014
A self-respecting hummingbird would never have been caught where we used to live, because there were just way too many people. But now we are in a quieter area where we get to see those little guys. They're the original helicopters you know. They hover; they dart around with their wings moving so fast you can hardly see them. If you want to have them visit your place, your best bet (My wife tells me) is to hang a hummingbird feeder outside. You fill it with this sweet sugar nectar, (It's delicious. I tried some) and before long they zoom up to that feeder, they insert their long straw, I mean beak, and then they start loading up on the sweet stuff.
I saw a documentary that said those little guys need constant sugar to keep going at that speed. They consume up to half their weight in sugar. There's just one problem: they only live about two years. No wonder!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hummingbird Believers."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew chapter 13. Jesus is describing how different people finish what God starts in their life as He sows the seed of His Word. Verse 5, "Some of the seed fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no roots."
Verse 20 explains that. He says, "The one that received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the Word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, he quickly falls away. Now, obviously here's the kind of Christian no one intends to be; the kind that doesn't make it. It's like people getting married. No one goes to the altar saying, "I think we might get divorced someday, but we'll give it a shot." No, no! Many do end up that way, but they don't intend to.
In that wonderful moment when a person makes a commitment to Jesus Christ, he or she wants this relationship to be the one that they've been looking for all their life. And it is. But some believers "wither" and "fall away" in Jesus' words. Why? Because too many become hummingbird believers. They live on spiritual sugar. They have no root and they don't last long. They fly around in a great spiritual burst and then they're suddenly gone.
Spiritual sugar! The concerts, the special services, "When's the next retreat?", "Let's go to camp!", "When's the next conference?", "Let's get to another special spiritual event!", "Oh, there's a spiritual celebrity coming to town." You can even live on a weekly high at church. And like most sugar highs, these spiritual shots will get you going, they really will. But they won't keep you going. Eventually you're going to crash.
No, Jesus suggested a better idea in Luke 6:47-48. "I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. And when a flood came the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built." Unshakable Christians, unsinkable Christians - a rock Christian. He's the one who goes for the protein, not just for the sugar. That means regular, disciplined, personal time in God's Word, looking for a word for you today so you can hear God saying, "I am Jesus, and I want to have A Word With You today about (and He'll talk to you)." He wants to have A Word With You every day. It takes a disciplined commitment to be an eagle that keeps on soaring; a commitment to being in God's Book every day. No one can have this time - non-negotiable.
Maybe you're tired of great spiritual rushes followed by long stretches of spiritual nothing. Pretty soon you're going to burn out on Christian sugar. It's time to step up to the diet of champions.
Hummingbirds live on sugar, and they don't live long. Neither do Christians who live on sugar. So start showing up every day at the other feeder - the one marked Bible, God's Word - and you'll be flying for a long, long time.
