Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
October 9
It’s Not Up to You
The Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way God wants.
Romans 8:27 (NCV)
None of us pray as much as we should, but all of us pray more than we think, because the Holy Spirit turns our sighs into petitions and tears into entreaties. He speaks for you and protects you. He makes sure you get heard.
Now, suppose a person never…learns about the sealing and intercession of the Spirit. This individual thinks that salvation security resides in self, not God, that prayer power depends on the person, not the Spirit. What kind of life will this person lead? A parched and prayerless one.
But what if you believe in the work of the Spirit? Will you be different as a result? You bet your sweet Sunday you will. Your shoulders will lift as you lower the buckling weight of self-salvation. Your knees will bend as you discover the buoyant power of the praying Spirit. Higher walk. Deeper prayers. And, most of all, a quiet confidence that comes from knowing it’s not up to you.
Revelation 6
The Seals
1I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" 2I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" 4Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
5When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart[a] of wheat for a day's wages,[b] and three quarts of barley for a day's wages,[c] and do not damage the oil and the wine!"
7When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
12I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Matthew 6:9-15
9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[a]' 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Footnotes:
Matthew 6:13 Or from evil; some late manuscripts one, / for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
October 9, 2008
The Chain Of Ungrace
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READ: Matthew 6:9-15
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. —Matthew 6:12
When I feel wronged, I can contrive a hundred reasons against forgiveness. “He needs to learn a lesson.” “I’ll let her stew for a while; it’ll do her good.” “It’s not up to me to make the first move.” When I finally soften to the point of granting forgiveness, it seems a leap from hard logic to mushy sentiment.
One factor that motivates me to forgive is that as a Christian I am commanded to, as the child of a Father who forgives. Jesus said, “If you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).
But beyond that, I can identify three pragmatic reasons. First, forgiveness halts the cycle of blame and pain, breaking the chain of ungrace. Without it we remain bound to the people we can’t forgive, held in their vise grip.
Second, forgiveness loosens the stranglehold of guilt in the perpetrator. It allows the possibility of transformation in the guilty party, even if a just punishment is still required.
And third, forgiveness creates a remarkable linkage, placing the forgiver on the same side as the party who did the wrong. We are not as different from the wrongdoer as we would like to think, for we too must ask our heavenly Father, “Forgive us our debts” (Matt. 6:12). — Philip Yancey
When I consider Calvary’s dismay—
The shame, the scorn, the scourging borne by You—
Resentment melts; I am compelled to say,
“Forgive them, Lord, they know not what they do!” —Mollon
He who cannot forgive others burns the bridge over which he himself must pass. —Herbert
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 9, 2008
Building on the Atonement
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READ:
. . . present . . . your members as instruments of righteousness to God —Romans 6:13
I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.
Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life— it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, "Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and in that?"
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Walking too Fast to Talk - #5674 - October 9, 2008
Category: Your Relationships
Thursday, October 9, 2008
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I always enjoyed walking the beautiful three-mile walk around the local lake we used to live near. And my wife enjoyed it too. Walking together is good. It not only improves your physical condition, but it gives you a chance to talk. Well, theoretically. The problem is I'm into covering that ground as fast as possible. That's maximum aerobic effect, calorie burn. You know. But when my wife and I would chug up and down our local hills at my hyper pace, she had a question: "Weren't we going to talk?" "Sure." Then comes her all too legitimate complaint: "You're walking too fast to talk." It's not just about when we're on a hike. And I don't think I'm alone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Walking too Fast to Talk."
Our word for today from the Word of God - now, let me warn you, I call it elbow verses. When you read them in church, husbands and wives start elbowing each other. "Hey, this is for you!" The wives get it in the earlier verses that talk about wives submitting to their husbands. But Mr. Husband is the focus of our word for today from Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church."
No doubt about what the word husband means to God. It's selfless love that continually puts a wife's needs and a wife's welfare ahead of his own. It's sacrificial love, like Jesus' love - love that's expressed by caring for her in a thousand little and big ways. A woman needs to be loved, she need to be valued, and what's the biggest single way she can tell she's loved and valued? By knowing she is important enough to be heard by her man. A woman has no greater need, I think, than to know she's being heard by the man to whom she has entrusted her life.
Which means she needs time. Guess what a man has the hardest time giving? Time! Especially time to listen. Why? Because he's walking or running too fast to talk or listen. If she can catch me, she can talk to me. If she can keep it to a three-minute summary, she can have my attention. That's not love.
If you're a married man or a man otherwise in love, the woman you love needs regular time to be heard. When a woman feels unheard, she talks louder, longer and more often. If you're wondering why she's becoming a nag, maybe you should look in the mirror.
Your listening time with your wife has to be a deliberate choice, a sacrifice choice, a regular choice. "I'm all yours, honey, and I'm yours for a while." That kind of love will create a home where there are no unpleasant surprises; where frustrations don't build into unmanageable avalanches; where a woman has that harbor that her heart has always longed for.
But it won't happen if you just keep going at the same speed you've been going. As my wife has taught me on our little walks, you have to slow down in order to talk. You have to slow down in order to listen. You know what? My wife's language of love, and I think every woman's language of love is pretty bottom line. It's your willingness to listen.