Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 10
Closer than You Think
Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
Matthew 14:27 (NKJV)
When the disciples saw Jesus in the middle of their stormy night, they called him a ghost. A phantom.... To them, the glow was anything but God.
When we see gentle lights on the horizon, we often have the same reaction. We dismiss occasional kindness as apparitions, accidents, or anomalies. Anything but God....
And because we look for the bonfire, we miss the candle. Because we listen for the shout, we miss the whisper.
But it is in burnished candles that God comes, and through whispered promises he speaks: "When you doubt, look around; I am closer than you think."
Hebrews 11
By Faith
1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for.
3By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
5By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he[a]considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring[b] will be reckoned."[c] 19Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
20By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.
23By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29By faith the people passed through the Red Sea[d] as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
31By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[e]
32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned[f]; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Exodus 22:22-27
22 "Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. 23 If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.
25 "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest. [a] 26 If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, 27 because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
September 10, 2008
Hear Their Cry
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READ: Exodus 22:22-27
You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry. —Exodus 22:22-23
CNN recently reported that there are approximately 40 million widows in India. Fifteen thousand of them live on the streets of the northern city of Vrindavan. Unfortunately, many of their families do not hear their cries. A 70-year-old widow says, “My son tells me: ‘You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away.’?” She cries, “What do I do? My pain has no limit.”
When God gave His people instructions in the desert, He told them they had a responsibility to care for widows and fatherless children in the land (Ex. 22:22-23). They were to leave some of the harvest in the field for them, and every third year they took up a special tithe for the needy. God expected His people to hear the cries of the powerless, defend their rights, and care for them.
The Israelites were commanded to care for others as a remembrance of their experience in Egypt. When they were in trouble and cried out to God, He heard their cries and helped them. So their memory of oppression and release was intended to mold their values, attitudes, and actions toward the powerless in the land (Deut. 24:18-22).
Let us imitate our Father by hearing the cries of the needy in our world. — Marvin Williams
To love your neighbor as yourself
Is not an easy task,
But God will show His love through you
If only you will ask. —Sper
The closer you are to God, the more you’ll have a heart for others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 10, 2008
Missionary Weapons (1)
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READ:
When you were under the fig tree, I saw you —John 1:48
Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, "If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion"? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character.
A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private "fig-tree" life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.
Are you saying, "But I can’t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn’t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready"? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God’s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.
God’s training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Beyond Yesterday - #5653 - September 10, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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We've got at least four generations of men in our family who have had a hard time holding onto their hair. Some have suggested that our hair is being pushed out by our rapidly expanding intelligence and that sounds very scientifically credible to me. I think that's it probably. I feel better when I hear about that man who lost all his hair in a very short time, well, almost all of it. He had that one hair that didn't fall out. And did he take care of that one hair! He made sure it was shampooed, and rinsed, moussed, and razor cut, and styled, until that awful morning he woke up and found that hair on his pillow. A shriek went through the house and he screamed at the top of his lungs, "Oh no! I'm bald!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Don't Wait Till it's All Gone!"
Mr. One-hair didn't wake up to what was going on until there was nothing left! That's the very mistake you might be making right now in one of your important relationships.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 5 beginning with verse 23, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." Jesus is saying, "If you've got a breaking or broken relationship, drop everything and get to fixing it immediately, you don't have anything more important to do. You say, "Wouldn't it make more sense to finish this worship service first?" He said, "No, first, go and be reconciled before you do any more work, any more worship, any more study, any more anything.
The problem is that we let walls and resentments grow, and like the man who was the last one to call himself bald, we wait until the relationship is gone before we face it.
It could be that somewhere in your life right now there is a hurting relationship. There is someone hurting, maybe someone you've wounded or insulted or neglected or ignored. Maybe there's a husband or wife, a son or daughter or maybe another loved one who is suddenly crying, "I need you and you're not here." Don't wait to act - don't wait to notice until it's too late.
My friend Stan waited for the emergency room. That's where they were fighting to save the life of his teenage daughter who had just attempted suicide. Thank God, Mary survived. And Stan finally faced the issues that were slowly destroying his little girl. He said, "Mary, I'm so sorry for the ways I've treated you and the affection I haven't given you. I've been copying the way my father treated me and I know you have needed a different kind of father. Please forgive me." She was almost gone before he could say he was sorry. Don't wait for the emergency room. By the way, that night was a turning point to a new and closer relationship.
Is there a relationship in your life that needs some attention? Jesus says to get to that first. It means facing your mistakes, facing your neglect, maybe your conflicts. It may mean apologizing, maybe forgiving. Reaching out with love they can feel, making time for someone you love but you've been too busy for. So many parents are so busy establishing their lives that they have no time for their children. Ironically, when the kids have time in their lives, we don't. Then, we finally have some time for them, and they don't. Irreplaceable years and opportunities are gone. We waited too long.
That may be what your Lord is trying to say to you right now. Take care of that relationship before any more time goes by. Don't wait until that devastating time when you wake up and realize that you've waited until there's nothing left.