Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
May 15
The Choice Is Ours
I will make you my promised bride forever. I will be good and fair; I will show you my love and mercy.
Hosea 2:19 (NCV)
For all its peculiarities and unevenness, the Bible has a simple story. God made man. Man rejected God. God won't give up until he wins him back.
God will whisper. He will shout. He will touch and tug. He will take away our burdens; he'll even take away our blessings. If there are a thousand steps between us and him, he will take all but one. But he will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours.
Please understand. His goal is not to make you happy. His goal is to make you his. His goal is not to get you what you want; it is to get you what you need.
Haggai 2
The Promised Glory of the New House
1 On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 2 "Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, 3 'Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? 4 But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,' declares the LORD. 'Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty. 5 'This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.'
6 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. 8 'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty. 9 'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty."
Blessings for a Defiled People
10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai: 11 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Ask the priests what the law says: 12 If a person carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?' "
The priests answered, "No."
13 Then Haggai said, "If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?"
"Yes," the priests replied, "it becomes defiled."
14 Then Haggai said, " 'So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,' declares the LORD. 'Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.
15 " 'Now give careful thought to this from this day on [b] —consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD's temple. 16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. 17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,' declares the LORD. 18 'From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid. Give careful thought: 19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.
" 'From this day on I will bless you.' "
Zerubbabel the LORD's Signet Ring
20 The word of the LORD came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month: 21 "Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I will shake the heavens and the earth. 22 I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.
23 " 'On that day,' declares the LORD Almighty, 'I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,' declares the LORD, 'and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,' declares the LORD Almighty."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (New International Version)
Wisdom From the Spirit
6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"[a]— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.[b] 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"[c] But we have the mind of Christ.
May 15, 2009
The Secret Is
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READ: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages. —1 Corinthians 2:7
If you believe Rhonda Byrne, author of the bestselling book The Secret, “The shortcut to anything you want in your life is to be and feel happy now!” According to Byrne, this has to do with something called the law of attraction. If you think only about things that make you happy, she says, happy things will be attracted to you.
Sounds easy enough.
However, the Bible says that “the secret” to life is something very different. It has to do with “the law of the Spirit of life” that sets us free from “the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2), not with the “law of attraction.”
According to the apostle Paul, the most important thing to know is “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). To those who are concerned with happiness now, this is indeed foolishness (v.14). They do not recognize the power of God in what appears to them as weakness.
The Lord created us with a desire to know what is secret. In His wisdom, He kept certain things hidden in mystery for a time (v.7). But now, through His Holy Spirit, He has made them known. And the secret He reveals has nothing to do with having happy thoughts in order to obtain happy things; it has to do with having the mind of Jesus Christ (v.16). — Julie Ackerman Link
There is a law that made us free—
In Romans 8 this truth is heard;
The secret is to walk with God
And daily lean upon His Word. —Hess
To know lasting happiness, we must get to know Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 15, 2009
The Habit of Rising to the Occasion
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READ:
. . . that you may know what is the hope of His calling . . . —Ephesians 1:18
Remember that you have been saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your body (see 2 Corinthians 4:10 ). Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way.
You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it. You must "work out your own salvation" which God has worked in you already ( Philippians 2:12 ). Are your speech, your thinking, and your emotions evidence that you are working it "out"? If you are still the same miserable, grouchy person, set on having your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.
God is the Master Designer, and He allows adversities into your life to see if you can jump over them properly—"By my God I can leap over a wall" ( Psalm 18:29 ). God will never shield you from the requirements of being His son or daughter. First Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you . . . ." Rise to the occasion—do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body.
May God not find complaints in us anymore, but spiritual vitality—a readiness to face anything He brings our way. The only proper goal of life is that we manifest the Son of God; and when this occurs, all of our dictating of our demands to God disappears. Our Lord never dictated demands to His Father, and neither are we to make demands on God. We are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. Once we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine with which to feed and nourish others.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Beautiful Things That Fall Apart - #5830
Friday, May 15, 2009
Occasionally my wife flips on the TV to one of those home shopping channels. And there actually are some good deals that show up there, and sometimes I can't get to the remote fast enough. One day she saw this 14-karat gold bracelet and she decided to order it. When it arrived, it looked just as beautiful as it had on television, until our two-year-old grandson got interested in it. He saw it on a dresser and was fascinated with the bracelet. He picked it up, played with it for a moment, at which point the bracelet just totally fell apart. My wife said there was one drawback to ordering from television or catalogs; she just couldn't hold the jewelry in her hand and feel the weight of it. The bracelet turned out to be very attractive on the outside but hollow on the inside.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beautiful Things That Fall Apart."
Maybe you've experienced that kind of disappointment in your life, not with jewelry but with relationships, your job, your dream, your accomplishments, or even your marriage. It was beautiful for a while, but then it just fell apart. It's almost like many of the things we depend on for happiness and meaning turn out to be hollow inside.
Those disappointments start us searching for something that is both beautiful and solid gold inside and out. Something that won't fall apart on us, something that won't let us down or leave us alone, something unbreakable - "unloseable." That search has led millions of people ultimately to Jesus Christ. It could be that He's where your search can end, too.
Jesus met a searcher at a well one day; a well where both he and this woman had stopped for a drink on a hot day. Their conversation later revealed that this woman had been looking for love and fulfillment in relationships with one man after another. Now, we all look different places, but we're all looking. Her hopes, her search just happened to be in the series of relationships.
In John 4:13-14, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus identifies the problem with so many of the "beautiful things" we look to, and then offers something very exciting. Speaking symbolically, Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." Translation: things just keep leaving us unsatisfied, still searching. "But whoever drinks the water I give him," Jesus says, "will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." That's "eternal" as in unloseable.
What Jesus offers is the one relationship - the one love that will totally fill the hole in your heart. It's the relationship with Him that the Bible says you were literally created for. That's why all those other beautiful things ultimately seem so hollow. But that relationship with Jesus is impossible as long as your sin stands between you and Him. No religion can take it away. Only He can because He died to pay for it. If there was any other way, He would not have paid that price.
So your search for your life-anchor finally ends when you open up your life to the One who paid for your life on the cross. If you've never done that, you could do it right now where you are and say, "Jesus, I believe that some of those things you died for were mine. You were supposed to run my life and I did instead. Thank you for paying the death penalty that I deserve. And now I reach out to You to give myself totally to You by faith, believing You are alive because you walked out of Your grave, and I am pinning all my hopes on You to get me to heaven; to forgive my sins and to fill the hole in my heart.
You will finally belong to the One who loves you most. If that's what you want, I would encourage you to go visit our website. It's www.YoursForLife.net. (click there)
You know what it is to pin your hopes on something that's beautiful for a while, until it falls apart in your hands. Jesus offers you life that is beautiful eternally. And no matter what else falls apart, this relationship is the one thing you will never lose.
