Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
April 10
Call It Grace
Being made right with God by his grace, we could have the hope of receiving the life that never ends.
Titus 3:7 (NCV)
You may be decent. You may pay taxes and kiss your kids and sleep with a clean conscience. But apart from Christ you aren't holy. So how can you go to heaven?
Only believe. Accept the work already done, the work of Jesus on the cross.
Accept the goodness of Jesus Christ. Abandon your own works and accept his. Abandon your own decency and accept his. Stand before God in his name, not yours.
It's that easy? There was nothing easy about it at all. The cross was heavy, the blood was real, and the price was extravagant. It would have bankrupted you or me, so he paid it for us. Call it simple. Call it a gift. But don't call it easy.
Call it what it is. Call it grace.
Isaiah 40
Comfort for God’s People
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
Tell her that her sad days are gone
and her sins are pardoned.
Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over
for all her sins.”
3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!
4 Fill in the valleys,
and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
and smooth out the rough places.
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken!”[a]
6 A voice said, “Shout!”
I asked, “What should I shout?”
“Shout that people are like the grass.
Their beauty fades as quickly
as the flowers in a field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fade
beneath the breath of the Lord.
And so it is with people.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fade,
but the word of our God stands forever.”
9 O Zion, messenger of good news,
shout from the mountaintops!
Shout it louder, O Jerusalem.[b]
Shout, and do not be afraid.
Tell the towns of Judah,
“Your God is coming!”
10 Yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming in power.
He will rule with a powerful arm.
See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
He will carry the lambs in his arms,
holding them close to his heart.
He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.
The Lord Has No Equal
12 Who else has held the oceans in his hand?
Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?
Who else knows the weight of the earth
or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
13 Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?[c]
Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
14 Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice?
Does he need instruction about what is good?
Did someone teach him what is right
or show him the path of justice?
15 No, for all the nations of the world
are but a drop in the bucket.
They are nothing more
than dust on the scales.
He picks up the whole earth
as though it were a grain of sand.
16 All the wood in Lebanon’s forests
and all Lebanon’s animals would not be enough
to make a burnt offering worthy of our God.
17 The nations of the world are worth nothing to him.
In his eyes they count for less than nothing—
mere emptiness and froth.
18 To whom can you compare God?
What image can you find to resemble him?
19 Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold,
overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains?
20 Or if people are too poor for that,
they might at least choose wood that won’t decay
and a skilled craftsman
to carve an image that won’t fall down!
21 Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand?
Are you deaf to the words of God—
the words he gave before the world began?
Are you so ignorant?
22 God sits above the circle of the earth.
The people below seem like grasshoppers to him!
He spreads out the heavens like a curtain
and makes his tent from them.
23 He judges the great people of the world
and brings them all to nothing.
24 They hardly get started, barely taking root,
when he blows on them and they wither.
The wind carries them off like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
26 Look up into the heavens.
Who created all the stars?
He brings them out like an army, one after another,
calling each by its name.
Because of his great power and incomparable strength,
not a single one is missing.
27 O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles?
O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights?
28 Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Luke 23:33-38 (New Living Translation)
33 When they came to a place called The Skull,[a] they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”[b] And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.[c]
35 The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. 37 They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 A sign was fastened to the cross above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”
April 10, 2009
Who Crucified Jesus?
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READ: Luke 23:33-38
When they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him. —Luke 23:33
When looking at Rembrandt’s painting of The Three Crosses, your attention is drawn first to the cross on which Jesus died. Then as you look at the crowd gathered around the foot of that cross, you are impressed by the various facial expressions and actions of the people involved in the awful crime of crucifying the Son of God. Finally, your eyes drift to the edge of the painting to catch sight of another figure, almost hidden in the shadows. Some art critics say this is a representation of Rembrandt himself, for he recognized that by his sins he helped nail Jesus to the cross.
Someone has said, “It is a simple thing to say that Christ died for the sins of the world. It is quite another thing to say that Christ died for my sins. . . . It is a shocking thought that we can be as indifferent as Pilate, as scheming as Caiaphas, as callous as the soldiers, as ruthless as the mob, or as cowardly as the disciples. It wasn’t just what they did—it was I who nailed Him to the tree. I crucified the Christ of God. I joined the mockery.”
Place yourself in the shadows with Rembrandt. You too are standing there. But then recall what Jesus said as He hung on that cross, “Father, forgive them.” Thank God, that includes you and me. — Henry G. Bosch
Behold the Savior of mankind
Nailed to the shameful tree!
How vast the love that Him inclined
To bleed and die for thee! —Wesley
The cross of Christ reveals the love of God at its best and the sin of the world at its worst.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 10, 2009
Complete and Effective Decision About Sin
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READ:
. . . our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6:6
Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin— that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you-not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified— just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.
Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, "Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me." Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.
This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot "reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin" ( Romans 6:11 ) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.
Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . ." ( Galatians 2:20 ).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Sweet Celebration of the Loyal Fans - #5805
Friday, April 10, 2009
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I guess it was inevitable. With our boys growing up in northern New Jersey, I guess it was predestined that they, and I for that matter, would become New York Giants football fans. Big Giants fans. Even in the season when they won only three games, and even when they had a string of bad seasons. Even when the airplane flew over a game with the banner that said, "Fifteen years of lousy football." What used to really annoy my boys was when friends who claimed to be Giants fans kept "jumping ship" when they kept losing. Then came the playoff Giants, and then the Giants that won the Super Bowl. Suddenly, there were gazillions of Giants fans everywhere, jumping up and down, celebrating the champions. But they could never know the joy of fans like my two sons who never lost hope, and who never stopped rooting for their team.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Sweet Celebration of the Loyal Fans."
It's true in sports; it's true in life. Victory is sweetest for those who were loyal through it all. Like Mary Magdalene in our word for today from the Word of God, taken directly from the glorious Easter story. Mary had been there at the cross, when all but one of Jesus' disciples had disappeared like scared rabbits. She had gone to the tomb for his burial. And now, after having been, along with some friends, the first one at Jesus' tomb that early Sunday morning, she just can't leave. She has found the tomb empty and now she has sunk to even greater despair, believing that someone has now stolen her Master's body.
John 20, beginning with verse 11, says, "Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been. They asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying?' 'They have taken my Lord away,' she said, 'and I don't know where they have put Him.' At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn't realize it was Jesus. 'Woman.' He said, 'why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?' Thinking He was the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him'...Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' She turned toward Him and cried out... 'Rabboni!' (which means Teacher)."
Then it says, "Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: 'I have seen the Lord.'" You bet she had, as no one had ever seen Him before. Who did Jesus choose as the first one to ever see Him alive again? The one who had been loyal to Him when every reason to be loyal seemed gone. Those are the people who see Jesus in ways that His fair-weather fans will never see Him.
Maybe you're going through a time that could be a major test of your loyalty to Jesus. It's dark, plans have been shattered, it's tempting to desert because of a tragedy, a loss, or an awful hurt. You don't understand why this is happening. Maybe many others have deserted Him. God seems silent and things seem to being getting worse instead of better. Your hopes were just sealed in a tomb.
Now is the moment of truth in your relationship with the man who gave His life for you. He did not abandon you when it meant the cross. Are you going to abandon Him? It's Mary Magdalene time: time to stand by Jesus, to stand firm in your commitment to Him, even when it feels like there's no reason to. The wisdom of many a veteran of many a spiritual battle still rings true today, "Never doubt in the darkness what God has told you in the light."
Yes, it's a Good Friday for you right now. But Easter is coming. And the one who stands by Jesus when everything seems to be falling apart is the one who's going to see Jesus in all His power and all His glory. Victory is sweetest for those who never leave Him.