Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
October 10
Short Cuts
They continue saying things that mean nothing, thinking that God will hear them because of their many words.
Matthew 6:7 (NCV)
I love the short sentence....What follows are cuts from some of my books and a couple of others. Keep the ones you like. Forgive the ones you don't. Share them when you can.
Pray all the time. If necessary, use words.
God forgets the past. Imitate him.
Greed I've often regretted. Generosity--never.
Don't ask God to do what you want. Ask God to do what is right.
No one is useless to God. No one.
Nails didn't hold God to a cross. Love did.
You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.
Revelation 7
144,000 Sealed
1After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3"Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." 4Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
5From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
6from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
7from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
8from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.
The Great Multitude in White Robes
9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10And they cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb." 11All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying:
"Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!"
13Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?"
14I answered, "Sir, you know."
And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15Therefore,
"they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
16Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
17For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 105
1 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
4 Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always.
5 Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
6 O descendants of Abraham his servant,
O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
October 10, 2008
A Handful Of Thorns
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 105:1-6
Give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! —Psalm 107:21
Jeremy Taylor was a 17th-century English cleric who was severely persecuted for his faith. But though his house was plundered, his family left destitute, and his property confiscated, he continued to count the blessings he could not lose.
He wrote: “They have not taken away my merry countenance, my cheerful spirit, and a good conscience; they have still left me with the providence of God, and all His promises . . . my hopes of Heaven, and my charity to them, too, and still I sleep and digest, I eat and drink, I read and meditate. And he that hath so many causes of joy, and so great should never choose to sit down upon his little handful of thorns.”
Although we may not be afflicted with the grievous difficulties that Jeremy Taylor endured, all of us face trials and troubles. Are we grumbling? Or do we refuse to let our “little handful of thorns,” our troubles, obscure the overwhelming abundance of our blessings?
When we feel like complaining, let’s remember God’s faithfulness and “give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples! . . . Remember His marvelous works which He has done!” (Ps. 105:1,5). — Vernon C. Grounds
When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost;
Count your many blessings—name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. —Oatman
Spend your time counting your blessings, not airing your complaints.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 10, 2008
How Will I Know?
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Jesus answered and said, ’I thank You, Father . . . that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes’ —Matthew 11:25
We do not grow into a spiritual relationship step by step— we either have a relationship or we do not. God does not continue to cleanse us more and more from sin— "But if we walk in the light," we are cleansed "from all sin" ( 1 John 1:7 ). It is a matter of obedience, and once we obey, the relationship is instantly perfected. But if we turn away from obedience for even one second, darkness and death are immediately at work again.
All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. Let God’s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know the truth of God is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don’t say, "I suppose I will understand these things someday!" You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the deepest truths of God immediately become yours. Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming one of the "wise and prudent." "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know . . ." (John 7:17 ).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Problem With Just Looking - #5675 - October 10, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Friday, October 10, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Maybe I'm just too sensitive about it, but I always feel a little sheepish when I walk into a store, knowing that I won't buy anything. I'll just be browsing along and some bored salesperson stands up and starts moving my direction. Maybe that's what makes me feel bad. It's her look of hope, of expectancy, of "at last I can justify my existence." "At last I can accomplish what I'm here to do." So the salesperson pleasantly asks, "May I help you?" To which I answer with the two most hated words in the life of a salesperson, "Just looking." I am such a disappointment.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Problem With Just Looking."
It's not just sales people who are bored by folks who are "just looking." Jesus is troubled by people, often people like you and me, who aren't interested in buying spiritually. They're "just looking." Like the people in our word for today from the Word of God in John 9:13.
Now, this follows Jesus' amazing miracle of healing a man who had been blind from birth. It should have been amazing to the religious leaders, the Pharisees. But all they could see was that Jesus had healed this man on the Sabbath, which they considered a violation of their laws.
The Bible says, "They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been born blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. 'He put mud on my eyes,' the man replied, 'and I washed, and now I see." Awesome, huh? Not to the Pharisees. Their reaction? "Some of the Pharisees said, 'This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.'"
Obviously men - very religious men - have no intention of buying into what Jesus is doing here. They're just looking. Actually, everywhere Jesus did miracles there seemed to be two groups: the expecters who are looking for Jesus to do something, and the dissecters who are just looking at what Jesus is doing. What bothers me is that the dissecters were the religious folks, the spiritual veterans. Like me and maybe you. They were always so busy analyzing what Jesus was doing that they missed what Jesus was doing. That could be happening to you.
As you get more settled into Christian things, as you know more Christian ideas, as you do more Christian activity, this subtle numbness can start to creep in. You go to church, not so much to have God speak to you but to watch God speak to others. You make spiritual events happen but you seldom let them happen to you. You start to become a discusser of God's working rather than an experiencer of God at work. You start to become critical of other leaders and other methods.
Can you feel that creeping sleep in your soul? Somewhere you stepped out of the middle of God's life-changing work and you moved to the edges to watch, to analyze, to categorize, to criticize, or to help it happen. And it's cold out there, isn't it? You show up at Jesus' store, you look around, but you just don't buy into the wonder of it all. The great revivalist Gipsy Smith started preaching when he was 17 and he quit when he was 82 because he died. When people used to ask him why he was as excited and passionate in his preaching even like when he was a young man, he simply said, "I have never lost the wonder."
Maybe you have. It's time to get back into the mainstream where the miracles are...where the powerful works of God are. Drop your analyzer's detachment and return to your original love, your original excitement about Jesus. Let God happen to you again! When Jesus is offering such supernatural merchandise, it would be a shame if you're just on the edges "just looking."
