Max Lucado Daily: Looking Upward
Genesis tells us, When Joseph had come to his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic. They took him and cast him into a pit. . .and they sat down to eat a meal. (37:23-25)
Joseph's hands were bound, his ankles tied, and his voice became hoarse from screaming. It wasn't that his brothers didn't hear him. Twenty-two years later, when a famine tamed their swagger, they would confess, "we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear" (Gen 42:21).
You're a version of Joseph. You carry something of God within you-something the world needs. If Satan can neutralize you, he can mute your influence. Life in the pit stinks! Yet it forces you to look upward. Someone from up there must come down here and give you a hand. God did for Joseph, and He will do the same for you!
From You'll Get Through This
Psalm 30
A psalm of David. A song for the dedication of the Temple.
I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me.
You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you restored my health.
3 You brought me up from the grave,[a] O Lord.
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.
4 Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!
Praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
6 When I was prosperous, I said,
“Nothing can stop me now!”
7 Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.
Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.
8 I cried out to you, O Lord.
I begged the Lord for mercy, saying,
9 “What will you gain if I die,
if I sink into the grave?
Can my dust praise you?
Can it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me.
Help me, O Lord.”
11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!
Footnotes:
30:3 Hebrew from Sheol.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, June 08, 2015
Read: Genesis 22:1-12
Abraham’s Faith Tested
Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
3 The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”
6 So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, 7 Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”
8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.
9 When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11 At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
12 “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
On a Hill Far Away
By Joe Stowell
Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love. —Genesis 22:2
I often find myself thinking back to the years when my children were young. One particular fond memory is our morning wake-up routine. Every morning I’d go into their bedrooms, tenderly call them by name, and tell them that it was time to get up and get ready for the day.
When I read that Abraham got up early in the morning to obey God’s command, I think of those times when I woke up my children and wonder if part of Abraham’s daily routine was going to Isaac’s bed to waken him—and how different it would have been on that particular morning. How heart-rending for Abraham to waken his son that morning!
Abraham bound his son and laid him on an altar, but then God provided an alternate sacrifice. Hundreds of years later, God would supply another sacrifice—the final sacrifice—His own Son. Think of how agonizing it must have been for God to sacrifice His Son, His only Son whom He loved! And He went through all of that because He loves you.
If you wonder whether you are loved by God, wonder no more.
Lord, I am amazed that You would love me so much that You would sacrifice Your Son for me. Teach me to live gratefully in the embrace of Your unfailing love.
God has already proven His love for you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 08, 2015
What’s Next To Do?
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. —John 13:17
Be determined to know more than others. If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea. Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself— begin to have spiritual discernment.
When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more. Examine where you have become sluggish, where you began losing interest spiritually, and you will find that it goes back to a point where you did not do something you knew you should do. You did not do it because there seemed to be no immediate call to do it. But now you have no insight or discernment, and at a time of crisis you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-controlled. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and knowing more.
The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2. It is much better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice…” (1 Samuel 15:22). Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been. “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know…” (John 7:17).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, June 08, 2015
Prayer - Accessing All Heaven Has - #7411
My schedule? Oh, forget it. It's ridiculous! So much so I often can't get to stores before they close. And banks just don't seem to have schedules that are made for guys like me. Here I am after banker's hours with nothing in my wallet but pictures of my family. But, listen, a great thing happened! The ATM was invented, the ATM card just for people like us. What a concept! Any time of the day or night I can go in with an empty wallet and use that card to instantly access my account and walk out with something in my wallet. Good deal.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Prayer - Accessing All Heaven Has."
One of the most powerful invitations in the Bible is our word for today from the Word of God; (I love this!) Hebrews 4:16. Fasten your seatbelt. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Man, we can go any time of the day or night, even at times when other people might be closed, right into God's Throne Room where His grace is always available, always unlimited. Boy, you talk about access!
Romans 5:2, "It is our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into the grace in which we now stand." It was expensive for us to have that access. It cost the blood of the Son of God. So we go in empty, and we come out with what we need. But it's not our account we tap into. That's often depleted. God opens up the Jesus account in heaven.
He talks about it in Philippians 4:19, "My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." I may be bankrupt; He has unlimited resources. And the spiritual access card? That's prayer; tapping into the unlimited resources of God because Jesus opened the access when He died for us on that cross.
So, you come with what Hebrews 4:16 calls "your time of need." What you leave with is grace to help. Take Philippians 4:6-7. It describes this Throne Room trade-off. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything present your requests to God. And the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
Now, if you really understand what's happening when you pray, you go in with worry. You leave it with God, and you walk out with unexplainable peace. Jeremiah 33:3 promises another exciting possibility. "Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you do not know." Okay, you go in with a situation where you just don't know any answers. You access God's resources through prayer, and you go out with great and mighty things only God could do.
What an incredible trade-off, huh? What an incredible exchange! We can go any time, day or night, at times when no one else could help us, would help us and receive resources that are beyond anything earth has to offer. This is the great access promise of God. There is no excuse for worry. There is no excuse for fear. And with access like this, why do we live in such unnecessary spiritual poverty? Guess we must not be using the access card we've got - prayer.
You need to exchange your burden, your need, for His grace. You need to exchange your worry for His peace. Things that have no earthly answers can be exchanged for things that only God could do. And He asks us to come and get it. Wow!
