Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
March 31
God Created All Things
By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:16 (NASB)
What a phenomenal list! Heavens and earth. Visible and invisible. Thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. No thing, place, or person omitted. The scale on the sea urchin. The hair on the elephant hide. The hurricane that wrecks the coast, the rain that nourishes the desert, the infant’s first heartbeat, the elderly person’s final breath—all can be traced back to the hand of Christ, the firstborn of creation.
Firstborn in Paul’s vernacular has nothing to do with birth order. Firstborn refers to order of rank. As one translation states: “He ranks higher than everything that has been made” (v.15 NCV). Everything? Find an exception. Peter’s mother-in-law has a fever: Jesus rebukes it. A tax needs to be paid: Jesus pays it by sending first a coin and then a fisherman’s hook into the mouth of a fish. Jesus…bats an eyelash, and nature jumps.
Hosea 3
Hosea's Reconciliation With His Wife
1 The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels [l] of silver and about a homer and a lethek [m] of barley. 3 Then I told her, "You are to live with [n] me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with [o] you."
4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. 5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Mark 14:32-42 (New International Version)
Gethsemane
32They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." 33He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch."
35Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36"Abba,[a] Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
37Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? 38Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
39Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. 40When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
41Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"
March 31, 2009
Does God Care?
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READ: Mark 14:32-42
[Jesus] began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” —Mark 14:33-34
One dreadful year, three of my friends died in quick succession. My experience of the first two deaths did nothing to prepare me for the third. I could do little but cry.
I find it strangely comforting that when Jesus faced pain, He responded much as I do. It comforts me that He cried when His friend Lazarus died (John 11:32-36). That gives a startling clue into how God must have felt about my friends, whom He also loved.
And in the garden the night before His crucifixion, Jesus did not pray, “Oh, Lord, I am so grateful that You have chosen Me to suffer on Your behalf.” No, He experienced sorrow, fear, abandonment, even desperation. Hebrews tells us that Jesus appealed with “vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death” (5:7). But He was not saved from death.
Is it too much to say that Jesus Himself asked the question that haunts us: Does God care? What else can be the meaning of His quotation from that dark psalm: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Ps. 22:1; Mark 15:34).
Jesus endured in His pain because He knew that His Father is a God of love who can be trusted regardless of how things appear to be. He demonstrated faith that the ultimate answer to the question Does God care? is a resounding Yes! — Philip Yancey
The aching void, the loneliness,
And all the thornclad way,
To Thee I turn with faith undimmed
And ’mid the darkness pray. —O. J. Smith
When we know that God’s hand is in everything, we can leave everything in God’s hand.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 31, 2009
Heedfulness or Hypocrisy in Ourselves?
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READ:
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death —1 John 5:16
If we are not heedful and pay no attention to the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other people are failing, and then we take our discernment and turn it into comments of ridicule and criticism, instead of turning it into intercession on their behalf. God reveals this truth about others to us not through the sharpness of our minds but through the direct penetration of His Spirit. If we are not attentive, we will be completely unaware of the source of the discernment God has given us, becoming critical of others and forgetting that God says, ". . . he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death." Be careful that you don’t become a hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right with God before you worship Him yourself.
One of the most subtle and illusive burdens God ever places on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning others. He gives us discernment so that we may accept the responsibility for those souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them (see Philippians 2:5 ). We should intercede in accordance with what God says He will give us, namely, "life for those who commit sin not leading to death." It is not that we are able to bring God into contact with our minds, but that we awaken ourselves to the point where God is able to convey His mind to us regarding the people for whom we intercede.
Can Jesus Christ see the agony of His soul in us? He can’t unless we are so closely identified with Him that we have His view concerning the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ will be completely and overwhelmingly satisfied with us as intercessors.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Responding to the Dispatcher - #5797
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
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Some jobs are just plain old monotonous - pretty much the same thing every day. Not if your job is serving as a police officer in a patrol car. Every day is full of surprises. You really don't know where that day's work is going to take you. Basically, an officer on patrol is a responder. His radio crackles with a call from the dispatcher, who tells him where he's supposed to go, "Car 22, go to 160 Elm Street. Domestic disturbance." And so, he's off to a place he hadn't planned to go until he got orders from the dispatcher.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Responding to the Dispatcher."
Now, an officer on patrol doesn't know where he's needed - the dispatcher knows. The officer's job isn't to decide where he's going to be assigned. It's to respond to the assignment given to him by the dispatcher. That's your job as a follower of Jesus Christ. His "Dispatcher" is called the Holy Spirit who has assignments for you each new day - often unexpected assignments. The extent to which you will be involved in the great plans of God for this planet depends on how responsive you are to those directions from headquarters.
There's a graphic example of this dynamic of being dispatched spiritually in our word for today from the Word of God. Acts 8 tells about Philip's powerful ministry in Samaria where God was moving mightily through his preaching. I'm sure Philip had no plans to leave in the middle of all these amazing events, but according to verse 26, "An angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' So he started out." The heavenly Dispatcher led Philip to leave the revival for a road in the desert, and Philip went.
On that road, Philip met an official from the royal court of Ethiopia who was a spiritual seeker. The Bible says, "The Spirit told Philip, 'Go to that chariot and stay near it.' Then Philip ran up to the chariot..." Philip found this man investigating an Old Testament prophecy about Christ. And it says, "Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus." Well, the man came to Christ, he was baptized on the spot, and carried the Gospel back to Africa. But here comes the Dispatcher from heaven again, "When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away. Philip traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns."
See, that's how it's supposed to work. We wake up in the morning with our plans. Hopefully, plans made prayerfully with God's guidance. But we turn our heart to heaven's frequency in the early moments of the day and we say, "Lord, I've got my plans, but I'm staying tuned to the Holy Spirit, your dispatcher. Direct me where You want me. Help me to be at the right place with the right people doing the right thing at the right time. I'm Yours to assign."
Your "to do" list may include things that He's already directed you to do. But He's a God of surprises, too. If you're always dropping everything to do something spontaneous, you probably haven't sought the Lord enough about what you're planning each day. But if you almost never drop what you're doing to follow the Spirit's unexpected prompting, you're probably too rigid for God to redirect. So stay flexible. Rigid people make lousy followers.
God may prompt you to make a call, write a letter, send an email, stop to pray, go somewhere, pray with someone else. Stay tuned for those Spirit-promptings. He may have an unscheduled life for you to touch or to be touched by. He may direct you somewhere to get an answer to your prayer or to be the answer to someone else's prayer.
Those who are on patrol to do God's work in the world are supposed to be responders; responding to the directions of the dispatcher from heaven. When you get your assignments from Him, you're going to find yourself right in the middle of the amazing plans of God.