Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
May 19
A Real Friend
A real friend will be more loyal than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24 (NCV)
To others, Jesus was a miracle worker. To others, Jesus was a master teacher. To others, Jesus was the hope of Israel. But to John, he was all of these and more. To John, Jesus was a friend.
You don’t abandon a friend—not even when that friend is dead. John stayed close to Jesus.
He had a habit of doing this. He was close to Jesus in the upper room. He was close to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was at the foot of the cross at the crucifixion, and he was a quick walk from the tomb at the burial.
Did he understand Jesus? No.
Was he glad Jesus did what he did? No.
But did he leave Jesus? No.
What about you?
Esther 2
Esther Made Queen
1 Later when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. 2 Then the king's personal attendants proposed, "Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful girls into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. 4 Then let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti." This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.
5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin [c] king of Judah. 7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.
8 When the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. 9 The girl pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king's palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem.
10 Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 11 Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.
12 Before a girl's turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. 13 And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. 14 In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.
15 When the turn came for Esther (the girl Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. 16 She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
17 Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.
Mordecai Uncovers a Conspiracy
19 When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. 20 But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai's instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up.
21 During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthana [d] and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. 22 But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. 23 And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were hanged on a gallows. [e] All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Revelation 12:7-12 (New International Version)
7And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
12Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short."
May 19, 2009
War In Heaven
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READ: Revelation 12:7-12
War broke out in heaven . . . . [And Satan] was cast to the earth. —Revelation 12:7-9
Philip Pullman is a gifted writer of fantasy books. His Dark Materials trilogy includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass and is very popular among young readers. But below the surface of these sympathetic characters and compelling subplots is a sinister purpose. The story culminates in a great war against God.
In these books, Pullman views the fall of Satan as a righteous cause for personal independence from God’s “tyrannical” control. He implies that Satan’s attempt to usurp the throne of God was the right thing to do!
In the book of Revelation, we read of the endtimes: “War broke out in heaven . . . . [And Satan] was cast to the earth” (Rev. 12:7-9). That future war is being preceded by an earthly conflict on the battlefield of our minds.
We must recognize Satan for what he is—a liar (John 8:44). His strategy is to take God’s words out of context and twist them into falsehood (Gen. 3:1-7). Our best defense against him is to hold firmly to the truth of God’s Word (Eph. 6:10-18).
Our loving heavenly Father is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9). But neither will He force our obedience. He leaves the choice to us. — Dennis Fisher
For Further Study
Want to learn more about spiritual warfare? Read
What In The World Is Satan Doing? on the Web at
www.discoveryseries.org/q1001
When Satan strikes, strike back with the Word of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 19, 2009
Out of the Wreck I Rise
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READ:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? —Romans 8:35
God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, "I will be with him in trouble . . ." ( Psalm 91:15 ). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. "In all these things we are more than conquerors . . ." ( Romans 8:37 ). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are "super-victors" in the midst of them, not because of our own ingenuity, nor because of our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there.
"Shall tribulation . . . ?" Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be— whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness— it is not able to "separate us from the love of Christ." Never allow tribulations or the "cares of this world" to separate you from remembering that God loves you ( Matthew 13:22 ).
"Shall . . . distress . . . ?" Can God’s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?
"Shall . . . famine . . . ?" Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be "more than conquerors," even while we are being starved?
Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or else some extraordinary thing happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it— the love of God in Christ Jesus. "Out of the wreck I rise" every time.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Letting Go of Your Little Ones - #5832
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
It's common to most every religious tradition, some ceremony or service where you dedicate or commit your new child to God. In some Christian traditions, it takes the form of baptism. Others have a brief baby dedication. The last baby we dedicated was our youngest child and that was more than a few years ago. I held the little guy in my hands. I don't do that anymore. See, times have changed. Oh, I don't pick him up anymore, I would hurt myself badly. He picks me up literally. He'll greet me at the airport and pick me up off the ground and spin me around. That's my baby. A lot of things have changed. One thing never has.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Letting Go of Your Little Ones."
Well, all three of our children grew up. But the transaction that took place that day we dedicated each of them to God is one thing that is still being repeated today. No, we can't hold them physically in our hands anymore. But we can, and we must, keep giving them over to the One who gave them to us. The problem is that all too often, we actually try to keep them in our hands, don't we?
There is no more beautiful "release your child" model in all the Bible than Hannah, the woman who prayed fervently for years that God would bless her infertility with a child. God answered that prayer by giving her a boy named Samuel, who was destined to become one of the great leaders of Israel. In obedience to God, Hannah brought her young son to the temple to be trained for spiritual leadership. In part of her prayer in 1 Samuel 1:27-28 we find our word for today from the Word of God. She says of this child for whom she had waited so long, "So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he will be given over to the Lord."
Do you know how often we moms and dads need to tell God that? Every day for the rest of your life, no matter how old or young our children are. No matter how close to God or far from God they are. But be careful, we're talking here about releasing our son or daughter to God, which means helping them become the person God created them to be, not trying to shape them into the person we want them to be. It means talking to God far more about your child than talking to your child about God, as important as that is.
For some of us who tend to be like control freaks, we have to make sure we're not trying to "play God" ourselves in our child's life. Parents who truly place their son or daughter in God's hands can lay off the nagging, the manipulating, the meddling, and the criticizing. What we try to control we often end up crushing. Our job is to say to God each new day, "You gave me this child, Lord. Again, for this new day, I'm giving her, I'm giving him, back to You. I'm available for anything You want me to do to join you in what you're doing in their life, whether You ask me to speak up, or remain silent, to apologize, to forgive, to sacrifice, or even change."
A surrendered parent is a parent at peace - a parent who knows that this treasure God has entrusted to them has this day been placed again in God's all-powerful hands. A God who knows the plans He has for that boy, for that girl, plans for good and not for evil, to give them a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). No matter how big your little ones get, remember whose they really are.
