Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
April 15
Sinner, Set Free
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
John 8:32 (NCV)
Think of it this way. Sin put you in prison. Sin locked you behind the bars of guilt and shame and deception and fear. Sin did nothing but shackle you to the wall of misery. Then Jesus came and paid your bail. He served your time; he satisfied the penalty and set you free. Christ died, and when you cast your lot with him, your old self died too.
The only way to be set free from the prison of sin is to serve its penalty. In this case the penalty is death. Someone has to die, either you or a heaven-sent substitute. You cannot leave prison unless there is a death. But that death has occurred at Calvary. And when Jesus died, you died to sin's claim on your life. You are free.
2 Kings 21
Manasseh Rules in Judah
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother was Hephzibah. 2 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the pagan shrines his father, Hezekiah, had destroyed. He constructed altars for Baal and set up an Asherah pole, just as King Ahab of Israel had done. He also bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them.
4 He built pagan altars in the Temple of the Lord, the place where the Lord had said, “My name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” 5 He built these altars for all the powers of the heavens in both courtyards of the Lord’s Temple. 6 Manasseh also sacrificed his own son in the fire.[a] He practiced sorcery and divination, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the Lord’s sight, arousing his anger.
7 Manasseh even made a carved image of Asherah and set it up in the Temple, the very place where the Lord had told David and his son Solomon: “My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem—the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel. 8 If the Israelites will be careful to obey my commands—all the laws my servant Moses gave them—I will not send them into exile from this land that I gave their ancestors.” 9 But the people refused to listen, and Manasseh led them to do even more evil than the pagan nations that the Lord had destroyed when the people of Israel entered the land.
10 Then the Lord said through his servants the prophets: 11 “King Manasseh of Judah has done many detestable things. He is even more wicked than the Amorites, who lived in this land before Israel. He has caused the people of Judah to sin with his idols.[b] 12 So this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of those who hear about it will tingle with horror. 13 I will judge Jerusalem by the same standard I used for Samaria and the same measure[c] I used for the family of Ahab. I will wipe away the people of Jerusalem as one wipes a dish and turns it upside down. 14 Then I will reject even the remnant of my own people who are left, and I will hand them over as plunder for their enemies. 15 For they have done great evil in my sight and have angered me ever since their ancestors came out of Egypt.”
16 Manasseh also murdered many innocent people until Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other with innocent blood. This was in addition to the sin that he caused the people of Judah to commit, leading them to do evil in the Lord’s sight.
17 The rest of the events in Manasseh’s reign and everything he did, including the sins he committed, are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. 18 When Manasseh died, he was buried in the palace garden, the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon became the next king.
Amon Rules in Judah
19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. His mother was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz from Jotbah. 20 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his father, Manasseh, had done. 21 He followed the example of his father, worshiping the same idols his father had worshiped. 22 He abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and he refused to follow the Lord’s ways.
23 Then Amon’s own officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace. 24 But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah the next king.
25 The rest of the events in Amon’s reign and what he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. 26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Josiah became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
John 3:22-31 (New Living Translation)
John the Baptist Exalts Jesus
22 Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people.
23 At this time John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to him for baptism. 24 (This was before John was thrown into prison.) 25 A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew[a] over ceremonial cleansing. 26 So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.”
27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. 28 You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ 29 It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. 30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.
31 “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else.[b]
April 15, 2009
Check Your Attitude
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READ: John 3:22-31
He must increase, but I must decrease. —John 3:30
A music professor with a well-trained voice usually sang the major male solo parts in the choir of a large church. A young man named Bob who had no training sometimes took a few shorter solos. As the choir director prepared for the Christmas cantata, she felt that Bob’s voice and style made him a natural for the lead role. However, she didn’t know how she could give it to him without offending the older man.
Her anxiety was unnecessary. The professor had the same thoughts as she did, and he told her that Bob should take the part. He continued to sing faithfully in the chorus and was a source of much encouragement to Bob.
People who can set aside selfish ambition and genuinely seek the good of others have an attitude that pleases God. Do you remember how John the Baptist reacted when the crowds left him and began following Jesus? He said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
What did John the Baptist and the music professor have in common? They were able to set aside “selfish ambition.” They were happy to see others elevated above themselves when it was for the common good. Can the same be said about us? — Herbert Vander Lugt
This is the highest learning,
The hardest and the best—
From self to keep still turning
And honor all the rest. —MacDonald
When we forget about ourselves, we do things others will remember.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 15, 2009
The Failure To Pay Close Attention
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READ:
The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days —2 Chronicles 15:17
Asa was not completely obedient in the outward, visible areas of his life. He was obedient in what he considered the most important areas, but he was not entirely right. Beware of ever thinking, "Oh, that thing in my life doesn’t matter much." The fact that it doesn’t matter much to you may mean that it matters a great deal to God. Nothing should be considered a trivial matter by a child of God. How much longer are we going to prevent God from teaching us even one thing? But He keeps trying to teach us and He never loses patience. You say, "I know I am right with God"— yet the "high places" still remain in your life. There is still an area of disobedience. Do you protest that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life He causes you to doubt? Whenever God causes a doubt about something, stop it immediately, no matter what it may be. Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God.
Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? If so, you may think you are all correct in the important areas, but you are careless— you are failing to concentrate or to focus properly. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes’ effort.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Level Ground - #5808
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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When I meet people who went to elementary or high school with my wife, they tell me she was shy. I didn't know her then, but I have found that very hard to accept. From the time I met her at a Christian college, she was vivacious, she was outgoing and she was confident. I've asked her about this seeming contradiction. She actually says that both descriptions are right. In her secondary school years, she lived in the country with parents who gave her a lot of love and courtesy and spiritual wealth, but who didn't have much of what our world calls wealth. So, she lived in a home without the conveniences that many of her friends in town would consider basic. She didn't have money to spend on clothes or makeup, so she felt a little self-conscious in a campus world that was so much about the way you dress and the "stuff" you have. But when she got to a Christian college, suddenly everything changed. Here's what she said: "For the first time in my life, the playing field was level."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Level Ground."
That's exactly the way God intended for it to be in His family, in His church, a level playing field where all that external junk the world judges people by just doesn't matter. It's the kind of environment in which people can blossom and unleash all the beauty and giftedness that God has planted in them.
In Galatians 3:26-28, our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus...There is neither Jew nor Greek (that's racial differences), slave nor free (that's class differences), male nor female (that's discrimination based on gender), for you are all one in Christ Jesus." I wonder if your church feels like that kind of place, your youth group, your Christian group. That's how it's supposed to feel!
The culture of money and power and fashion and social groupings is supposed to stop at the door of the Church of Jesus Christ. I hope it does at yours. None of that stuff matters to Jesus. The world has its "power elite" and its "insiders and outsiders." Don't let that cancer infect your church. People need to come into a group of Christians and feel level ground; a warm, sincere welcome, no matter how they look, no matter what they have, no matter what their background. Anything less is a shameful contradiction of everything Jesus is about - grace - unconditional love. Remember, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
Years ago in a large, fashionable church, two people came down the aisle to give their lives to Jesus Christ; one was the governor of the state, the other was a maid. The pastor said it all when he looked down at the people at the altar and said, "The ground is level at the cross." It really is, but maybe only at the cross. It may be that you have spent most of your life feeling like you were on the bottom - the outsider. Maybe even Christians have let Jesus down in how they've treated you. But I want to let you know today that you can come to the cross and find there Jesus, the Son of God, who thought you were worth dying for. He knows everything about you, and He loves you. And He's waiting to welcome you into His family.
I want to encourage you today to go to Jesus and say, "Jesus, I thank you for your accepting, unconditional love, and I am ready to accept that love for myself. I believe you died on the cross for all the junk of my life, and I come with all the junk, and all the doubts, and all the baggage and bring them to your cross; thanking you that you have never turned one away.
Our website has helped a lot of people begin that relationship. I would encourage you to go there today. It's YoursForLife.net. Or I'd be glad to send you my booklet Yours For Life if you'll just call for it toll free. It's 877-741-1200.
Today you could be welcomed into His family.