Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 3
The Strength of God’s Love
God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
Romans 5:8 (NCV)
"Can anything make me stop loving you?" God asks. "Watch me speak your language, sleep on your earth, and feel your hurts. Behold the maker of sight and sound as he sneezes, coughs, and blows his nose. You wonder if I understand how you feel? Look into the dancing eyes of the kid in Nazareth; that's God walking to school. Ponder the toddler at Mary's table; that's God spilling his milk.
"You wonder how long my love will last? Find your answer on a splintered cross, on a craggy hill. That's me you see up there, your maker, your God, nail-stabbed and bleeding. Covered in spit and sin-soaked.
"That's your sin I'm feeling. That's your death I'm dying. That's your resurrection I'm living. That's how much I love you."
Job 3
Job Speaks
1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:
3 "May the day of my birth perish,
and the night it was said, 'A boy is born!'
4 That day—may it turn to darkness;
may God above not care about it;
may no light shine upon it.
5 May darkness and deep shadow [f] claim it once more;
may a cloud settle over it;
may blackness overwhelm its light.
6 That night—may thick darkness seize it;
may it not be included among the days of the year
nor be entered in any of the months.
7 May that night be barren;
may no shout of joy be heard in it.
8 May those who curse days [g] curse that day,
those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars become dark;
may it wait for daylight in vain
and not see the first rays of dawn,
10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me
to hide trouble from my eyes.
11 "Why did I not perish at birth,
and die as I came from the womb?
12 Why were there knees to receive me
and breasts that I might be nursed?
13 For now I would be lying down in peace;
I would be asleep and at rest
14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,
15 with rulers who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child,
like an infant who never saw the light of day?
17 There the wicked cease from turmoil,
and there the weary are at rest.
18 Captives also enjoy their ease;
they no longer hear the slave driver's shout.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slave is freed from his master.
20 "Why is light given to those in misery,
and life to the bitter of soul,
21 to those who long for death that does not come,
who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
22 who are filled with gladness
and rejoice when they reach the grave?
23 Why is life given to a man
whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
24 For sighing comes to me instead of food;
my groans pour out like water.
25 What I feared has come upon me;
what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I have no peace, no quietness;
I have no rest, but only turmoil."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
John 17:20-26
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
November 3, 2008
God’s Catalog
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READ: John 17:20-26
By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. —John 13:35
Tis the season to receive catalogs in the mail. Every trip to the mailbox ends with an armload of slick holiday catalogs. Each one claims to offer me something I need—immediately. “Don’t wait!” “Limited offer!” “Order now!”
The lure works. I open the pages to discover what I didn’t know I needed. Sure enough, I see things that suddenly seem essential, even though a few minutes earlier I didn’t know they existed. Manufacturers use catalog illustrations to create desire for their products.
In a way, Christians are God’s catalogs. We are His illustration to the world of what He has to offer. His work in our lives makes us a picture of qualities that people may not know they need or want until they see them at work in us.
Jesus prayed that His followers would be unified so the world would know that God sent Him and loved them as God loved Him (John 17:23). When Christ is alive in us, we become examples of God’s love. We can’t manufacture love. God is the manufacturer, and we are His workmanship.
As you browse holiday catalogs, consider what the “catalog” of your life says about God. Do people see qualities in you that make them long for God? — Julie Ackerman Link
What does the world see in us
That they can’t live without?
Do they see winsome qualities
And love that reaches out? —Sper
As a Christian, you are “God’s advertisement.” Do people want what they see in you?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 03, 2008
A Bondservant of Jesus
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . . —Galatians 2:20
These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, ". . . for My sake" ( Matthew 5:11 ). That is what makes a strong saint.
Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is—will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable—"I have been crucified with Christ . . . ."
The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.
One student a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
No Castaways - #5691 - November 3, 2008
Category: Your Personal Power
Monday, November 3, 2008
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It's hard to imagine a movie that got rave reviews when there are about 45 minutes during which there was just one man on the screen, and he didn't even talk that whole time! But Tom Hanks pulled it off in his blockbuster movie, "Cast Away." It's the story of the lone survivor of a Federal Express plane crash who ends up totally alone on an island. Well alone, that is, except for his one friend - a volleyball he names Wilson. Tom Hanks' character is on that island, marooned and alone, for four years. He's the castaway.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Castaways."
You've probably never been marooned on a desert island. But you may know pretty well how it feels. In a world of bad relationships and superficial relationships and broken relationships, a lot of people know the feeling of being emotionally marooned, abandoned, maybe even discarded. Because of some of what you've been through, you may feel like you're the castaway.
But your days on that island may be almost over. In fact, it could be that all your failed or frustrating relationships have actually been preparing you to experience the central relationship you were made for. The one relationship that is so permanent and so secure that it even redefines your need for love, and it sets you free for healthier relationships all around.
Anyone who has ever felt like an emotional castaway needs to hear the fabulous promise of Jesus Christ in our word for today from the Word of God. In John 14:18, Jesus says to all those who belong to Him, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." This is the same Savior who says, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). He's the One who promised "The one that comes to me, I will certainly not cast out" (John 6:37).
That's it: unconditional love, unconditionally guaranteed by the One with more love to give than anyone in the world. And that's the kind of anchor love that your heart is so ready for, a kind of dependable love that you may have almost given up on, but a love that's guaranteed by the man who loved you enough to die for you.
The Bible actually says that you and I were "created by Jesus and for Jesus" (Colossians 1:16). But maybe you've never given yourself to Jesus until now. It's all the hurt of those other relationships that has softened your heart and made you realize how much you need the One who died to pay for all the wrong things you've ever done. We're not talking about a Christian religion here. No religion can love you, forgive you, be with you every moment of every day, or take you to heaven when you die. Only Jesus can do that.
So this is all about a relationship; a relationship that begins when you respond to this awesome love of Jesus. It begins when you welcome Him into your life, counting on Him and on Him alone to remove the wall between you and God. When you do that, the relationship you were created for begins. And from now on, that promise of Jesus can be all about you, "The one that comes to Me I will certainly not cast out."
Why don't you tell Jesus right now that the door on your heart is wide open to Him; that today you want to begin your personal relationship with Him. You know, if that's something you're ready for, you can say to Him, "Lord Jesus, I'm sorry for running my own life and hijacking it from your control. And now I believe that the death penalty for my sin was paid for by your death on the cross. I thank you that you came back from the dead, you're alive, and I am yours from today on. That begins that relationship if you pray that with your heart.
Our website is really set up to help walk you through a sure way to know you've begun your relationship with Jesus. A lot of people have been helped there it seems, and I'd invite you to go there today. It's YoursForLife.net. Or I can send you my booklet Yours for Life if you'll just call for it toll free at 877-741-1200.
You have lived long enough on that lonely island. It's time to meet the one person who will never, never leave you. If you do, you have just spent your last day alone.