Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
October 30
He Did It for You
All things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Philippians 3:8 (NCV)
Want to know the coolest thing about Christ’s coming?
Not that the One who hung the galaxies gave it up to hang doorjambs to the displeasure of a cranky client who wanted everything yesterday but couldn’t pay for anything until tomorrow.
Not that he refused to defend himself when blamed for every sin of every loose woman and sailor since Adam….
Not even that after three days in a dark hole he stepped into the Easter sunrise with a smile and a swagger and a question for lowly Lucifer—“Is that your best punch?”
That was cool, incredibly cool.
But want to know the coolest thing about the One who gave up the crown of heaven for a crown of thorns? He did it for you. Just for you.
Genesis 15
God's Covenant With Abram
1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
"Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield, [a]
your very great reward. [b] "
2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit [c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."
8 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"
9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river [d] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates- 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
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.
October 30, 2008
God-ography
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Hebrews 11:1-6
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. —Hebrews 11:6
A National Geographic News survey in 2006 reported that many young Americans are geographically illiterate. According to the survey, 63 percent of Americans aged 18-24 failed to correctly locate Iraq on a map of the Middle East. The results for US geography are even more dismal. Half could not find New York State on the map, a third could not find Louisiana, and 48 percent could not locate the state of Mississippi.
Understanding geography is helpful in daily life, but “God-ography” (finding God) is infinitely more crucial—for now and for eternity.
In Hebrews 11:6 we are told that to find God and please Him, we first have to believe that He exists. How can we prove that God exists? Finding God is a matter of faith—confidence in Him and commitment to Him. This confidence and commitment should remain strong even though the objects of our faith are unseen. The writer of Hebrews and the apostle John agree that ultimately the way to find the Lord and please Him is by believing in His Son Jesus (Heb. 11:6; John 14:6).
Finding God is solely a work of God. Those who seek Him will find Him because God will give them a heart to recognize Him as Lord (Jer. 29:13-14). — Marvin Williams
I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, as He sought me;
It was not I who found, O Savior true;
No, I was found of Thee. —Anon.
To find God, we must be willing to seek Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Faith
"Without faith it is impossible to please Him."
Hebrews 11:6
Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relation. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual. "We know that all things work together for good," then no matter what happens, the alchemy of God's providence transfigures the ideal faith into actual reality. Faith always works on the personal line, the whole purpose of God being to see that the ideal faith is made real in His children.
For every detail of the common-sense life, there is a revelation fact of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle which always puts Jesus Christ first - Lord, Thou hast said so and so (e.g., Matthew 6:33), it looks mad, but I am going to venture on Thy word. To turn head faith into a personal possession is a fight always, not sometimes. God brings us into circumstances in order to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we can not have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say - "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father," we have something that is real, and faith is boundless. Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Jamming Communications - #5689 - October 30, 2008
Category: Your Personal Power
Thursday, October 30, 2008
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In college, our daughter wrote an award-winning essay about the power of radio. In that essay she wrote that "radio has the power to go through walls and sneak past border guards." That's very true. For example, before the fall of Communism, Uncle Sam broadcast Free World messages behind the Iron Curtain through an organization called Radio Free Europe. People got to hear truth about the rest of the world that they never would have heard otherwise. Of course, the Communist leaders didn't want people hearing the rest of the story, so they would broadcast on those same frequencies, often just trying to drown out the truth with noise.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Jamming Communications."
The Iron Curtain, thank God that's gone, but unfortunately the strategy of drowning out the truth with noise - that's not gone. In fact, Satan has been using that strategy for a long time to keep us from hearing what God has to say. Our word for today from the Word of God is just eight little words, but they are words that, for all their simplicity totally challenge most of our lifestyles. Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God." How do you get in touch with the heart of God, with the plans of God, with the perspective of God? Be still. Now the enemy of our souls knows that, so he simply tries to jam God's communications to us by covering them up with lots and lots of noise.
And it's easy to let it happen in our busy, busy lives. A telephone at home, a telephone at work, a cell phone with us everywhere. We've got them in our car, we've got phones in our pocket, we've got beepers to get us when phones can't, we've got faxes and e-mails and text messaging. And people's voices - our children, our mate, our friends, our coworkers - they are always transmitting to us. We've been raised with television, radio, videos, computers, home entertainment centers, I-pods, and CDs. We wake up to background sound, we get ready to it, we drive to it, we exercise with it, we relax with it, and we go to sleep with it. And then there's the "quiet noise" - newspapers, magazines, novels, and piles of mail.
We've been raised in such a noisy world that silence actually makes a lot of us uncomfortable. If there isn't background sound, we turn some on fast! And yet God says He is best known in silent times. We have so few. And while Christian radio and TV, Christian music, can encourage our growth in Christ, even they can jam what God wants to say to our heart if we keep them going constantly.
As Martha was stressfully running around serving Jesus, He told her that what her sister Mary was doing was the most important thing, quietly sitting at His feet just listening to Him. That's what we have way too little of. We have plenty of Martha busyness, but not much Mary quietness, just listening to Jesus. As a result, our minds are stressed and our souls are parched.
I wonder if God is saying to you in the midst of the barrenness of a busy life, "Slow down. You're missing Me in all of this because you're not protecting our quiet times." You literally have to fight for those quiet times in a world of noise. You drive without the radio on just so you can listen to your Lord. You leave the TV off, you skip the news, you exercise without the music, you go away if necessary just to be still and know He is God. Begin by praising Him specifically for attributes and actions that you've been experiencing, and then listen to Him through extended time in His Word. Pour out your deepest feelings to Him in prayer and listen in your soul for His responses. Keep a note pad handy and write down whatever He seems to be saying during this time when His voice is the only one you're listening to.
Satan doesn't want you to hear the messages from God's heart to your heart, so he just keeps trying to jam God's communications, drowning out the truth with noise. You can't afford to miss those messages from God's heart to your heart. Carve out some silence. In the silence, you can hear heaven.
