Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
April 1
God’s Faithfulness
My God will use his wonderful riches in Christ Jesus to give you everything you need.
Philippians 4:19 (NCV)
God's faithfulness has never depended on the faithfulness of his children. He is faithful even when we aren't. When we lack courage, he doesn't. He has made a history out of using people in spite of people.
Need an example? The feeding of the five thousand. It's the only miracle, aside from those of the final week, recorded in all four Gospels. Why did all four writers think it worth repeating? . . . Perhaps they wanted to show how God doesn't give up even when his people do. . . .
When the disciples didn't pray, Jesus prayed. When the disciples didn't see God, Jesus sought God. When the disciples were weak, Jesus was strong. When the disciples had no faith, Jesus had faith.
I simply think God is greater than our weakness. In fact, I think it is our weakness that reveals how great God is....
God is faithful even when his children are not.
Hosea 4
The Charge Against Israel
1 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,
because the LORD has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
"There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing, [p] lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Because of this the land mourns, [q]
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea are dying.
4 "But let no man bring a charge,
let no man accuse another,
for your people are like those
who bring charges against a priest.
5 You stumble day and night,
and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother-
6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
"Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
I also will ignore your children.
7 The more the priests increased,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged [r] their [s] Glory for something disgraceful.
8 They feed on the sins of my people
and relish their wickedness.
9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.
I will punish both of them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
10 "They will eat but not have enough;
they will engage in prostitution but not increase,
because they have deserted the LORD
to give themselves 11 to prostitution,
to old wine and new,
which take away the understanding 12 of my people.
They consult a wooden idol
and are answered by a stick of wood.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;
they are unfaithful to their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar and terebinth,
where the shade is pleasant.
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution
and your daughters-in-law to adultery.
14 "I will not punish your daughters
when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law
when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots
and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—
a people without understanding will come to ruin!
15 "Though you commit adultery, O Israel,
let not Judah become guilty.
"Do not go to Gilgal;
do not go up to Beth Aven. [t]
And do not swear, 'As surely as the LORD lives!'
16 The Israelites are stubborn,
like a stubborn heifer.
How then can the LORD pasture them
like lambs in a meadow?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols;
leave him alone!
18 Even when their drinks are gone,
they continue their prostitution;
their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
19 A whirlwind will sweep them away,
and their sacrifices will bring them shame.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 (New International Version)
1 Thessalonians 2
Paul's Ministry in Thessalonica
1You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. 3For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. 5You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. 6We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.
As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, 7but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. 8We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.
April 1, 2009
Servant-Friendship
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READ: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. —1 Thessalonians 2:7
Don Tack wanted to know what life was like for homeless people. So he concealed his identity and went to live on the streets of his city. He found out that food and shelter were offered by many organizations. At one shelter he could spend the night if he listened to a sermon beforehand. He appreciated the guest speaker’s message and wanted to talk with him afterward. But as Don reached out to shake the man’s hand and asked if he could talk with him, the speaker walked right past him as if he didn’t exist.
Don learned that what was missing most in ministry to the homeless in his area were people who were willing to build relationships. So he began an organization called Servants Center to offer help through friendship.
What Don encountered at the shelter was the opposite of what the people who heard the apostle Paul experienced. When he shared the gospel, he gave himself too. He testified in his letter to the Thessalonians, “We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us” (1 Thess. 2:8). He said, “We were gentle among you,” like a mother (v.7).
In our service for the Lord, do we share not just our words or money but our time and friendship? — Anne Cetas
I want to do service for Christ while I live,
And comfort and cheer to poor lonely hearts give;
For this is the program approved by the Word,
To visit the needy and speak of the Lord. —Bosch
One measure of our likeness to Christ is our sensitivity to the suffering of others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 1, 2009
Helpful or Heartless Toward Others?
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READ:
It is Christ . . . who also makes intercession for us. . . . the Spirit . . . makes intercession for the saints . . . —Romans 8:34, 27
Do we need any more arguments than these to become intercessors-that Christ "always lives to make intercession" ( Hebrews 7:25 ), and that the Holy Spirit "makes intercession for the saints"? Are we living in such a relationship with others that we do the work of intercession as a result of being the children of God who are taught by His Spirit? We should take a look at our current circumstances. Do crises which affect us or others in our home, business, country, or elsewhere, seem to be crushing in on us? Are we being pushed out of the presence of God and left with no time for worship? If so, we must put a stop to such distractions and get into such a living relationship with God that our relationship with others is maintained through the work of intercession, where God works His miracles.
Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don’t worship God, and we fail to intercede. If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord.
Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit?
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Shadow that Scares Us - #5798
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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City Boy here is a lot of fun to watch when he's trying to be Farm Boy. My wife and I were helping out in someone else's barn the other night when it happened: the large shadow of something flying over our heads. I hadn't seen the creatures yet; all I could see was this massive shadow on the wall. I knew my responsibility as a man. That's right, run for help! Well, there was actually no reason to run. When we looked up, we saw what was casting those huge, unsettling shadows: some little moths, flying around the little light overhead. The shadow was scary; the reality behind the shadow was not scary at all.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Shadow that Scares Us."
There's a big shadow that has bothered all of us at one time or another. To be honest, it can be a pretty scary shadow. You see that shadow sometimes when you're in the doctor's office, or when you have a close call, or when you've been to the funeral of someone you know; especially someone who was about your age. It is, of course, the shadow of death.
The great Jewish king, David, wrote about that shadow in what may be the best known psalm in the Bible, Psalm 23. In the fourth verse of that psalm, our word for today from the Word of God, he says: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." The "You," of course, is the one David talks about at the beginning of his psalm "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want." Now, when his loving shepherd leads him out of this life and into what he calls "the house of the Lord forever," he's going to have nothing to fear.
Many folks don't have that kind of peace and confidence about what happens on the other side of their last heartbeat. Maybe you don't. For you, the thought of death and what may be beyond is more than just a shadow. It's an unsettling, even frightening, reality. Should we be fearful about death and what's beyond? It all depends on where you stand with the God you'll meet on the other side. In a sense, the only thing you fear about death is God. And we're scared of God. And maybe we should be scared of God, because of the wrong things we've done. He knows every person I've hurt, every lie I've ever told, every sin I've ever committed, every promise I've broken, every selfish or immoral thought or deed, and every dark secret of my life. There's no way you and I can get into his heaven with our sin. It would ruin heaven.
But there is some awesome good news for us in Hebrews 2:14-15. God tells us that Jesus Christ died on a cross to "free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Wow! See, Jesus actually absorbed all the guilt, all the hell of your sin and mine when He died on the cross. Which means you can be forgiven for every sin of your life. The Bible says that when you put your trust in Jesus to be your personal rescuer from your personal sin, your sins are erased from God's book forever and your name is entered in His "Book of Life" - those who are going to heaven when they die.
So you don't have to wait till you die to know if you're going to heaven. You can know that today, because Jesus is offering to remove the only thing that could keep you out of heaven - your sins. But you do have to grab the nail scarred hand of the Rescuer. He's reaching your direction today. Tell Him that you're His from today on. Tell Him you want to belong to Him. Tell Him, "Jesus, thank you that when you died on that cross, some of those sins you were paying for were mine. I turn from them now to grab you with both hands to be my own Savior."
If you want to begin your life-saving relationship with Jesus, I'd encourage you to check out our website as soon as you can today and take a look at some information I think would help you be sure you belong to Him. How to begin life's most important relationship. The website is YoursForLife.net. Or I'd love to send you my booklet called Yours For Life. Just call for it toll free. The number is 877-741-1200.
If you don't belong to Jesus, death is a monster that should be feared. If you do belong to Him, then death becomes just a shadow because death is now your doorway to all that heaven offers you.