Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
June 30
Don’t Give Up!
“It is finished.”
John 19:30 (NCV)
Our inability to finish what we start is seen in the smallest of things:
A partly mowed lawn.
A half-read book.
Or, it shows up in life’s most painful areas:
An abandoned child.
A wrecked marriage.
Any chance I’m addressing someone who is considering giving up? If I am, I want to encourage you to remain. I want to encourage you to remember Jesus’ determination on the cross.
Jesus didn’t quit. But don’t think for one minute that he wasn’t tempted to. Did he ever want to quit? You bet.
That’s why his words are so splendid. “It is finished.”
John 17
Jesus Prays for Himself
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed. He said,
"Father, the time has come. Bring glory to your Son. Then your Son will bring glory to you. 2 You gave him authority over all people. He gives eternal life to all those you have given him.
3 "And what is eternal life? It is knowing you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth. I have finished the work you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, give glory to me in heaven where your throne is. Give me the glory I had with you before the world began. +&
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 "I have shown you to the disciples you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me. And they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 I gave them the words you gave me. And they accepted them. They knew for certain that I came from you. They believed that you sent me.
9 "I pray for them. I am not praying for the world. I am praying for those you have given me, because they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. Glory has come to me because of my disciples.
11 "I will not remain in the world any longer. But they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe by the power of your name. It is the name you gave me. Keep them safe so they can be one, just as you and I are one.
12 "While I was with them, I guarded them. I kept them safe through the name you gave me. None of them has been lost, except the one who was sentenced to be destroyed. It happened so that Scripture would come true.
13 "I am coming to you now. But I say these things while I am still in the world. I say them so that those you gave me can have all my joy inside them. 14 I have given them your word. The world has hated them. This is because they are not part of the world any more than I am. 15 I do not pray that you will take them out of the world. I pray that you will keep them safe from the evil one.
16 "They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to it. 17 Use the truth to make them holy. Your word is truth. 18 You sent me into the world. In the same way, I have sent them into the world. 19 I make myself holy for them so that they too can be made holy in a true sense. +&
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20 "I do not pray only for them. I pray also for those who will believe in me because of their message. 21 Father, I pray that all of them will be one, just as you are in me and I am in you. I want them also to be in us. Then the world will believe that you have sent me.
22 "I have given them the glory you gave me. I did this so they would be one, just as we are one. 23 I will be in them, just as you are in me. I want them to be brought together perfectly as one. This will let the world know that you sent me. It will also show the world that you have loved those you gave me, just as you have loved me.
24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am. I want them to see my glory, the glory you have given me. You gave it to me because you loved me before the world was created.
25 "Father, you are holy. The world does not know you, but I know you. Those you have given me know you have sent me. 26 I have shown you to them. And I will continue to show you to them. Then the love you have for me will be in them. I myself will be in them."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Luke 19
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man named Zacchaeus lived there. He was a chief tax collector and was very rich.
3 Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was. But he was a short man. He could not see Jesus because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore?fig tree. He wanted to see Jesus, who was coming that way.
5 Jesus reached the spot where Zacchaeus was. He looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay at your house today." 6 So Zacchaeus came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this. They began to whisper among themselves. They said, "Jesus has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "
8 But Zacchaeus stood up. He said, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of what I own to those who are poor. And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay it back. I will pay back four times the amount I took."
9 Jesus said to Zacchaeus, "Today salvation has come to your house. You are a member of Abraham's family line. 10 The Son of Man came to look for the lost and save them."
June 30, 2009
Search And Rescue
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READ: Luke 19:1-10
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. —Luke 19:10
Almost every week we see news about a search-and-rescue mission. It may involve a child who wandered away from a family picnic and is lost, or a hiker stranded on a mountain, or people trapped in the rubble following an earthquake. In every case, the people at risk are unable to help themselves. Those who are found and saved usually have lasting gratitude for those who joined in the search and rescued them.
The account of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10 is a story of search and rescue. At first glance it may seem like a series of chance events—Jesus was passing through Jericho and a rich tax collector climbed a tree to catch a glimpse of the miracle-working teacher. But this encounter with Jesus was not a coincidence. At the end of the narrative, Luke deliberately included Jesus’ words to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house . . . ; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (vv.9-10).
Jesus began His search-and-rescue operation on earth by His life, death, and resurrection. He continues it today through the power of the Holy Spirit, and He graciously invites us to participate with Him by loving those who are lost. — David C. McCasland
People can’t believe in Jesus
If the gospel they don’t hear,
So we must proclaim its message
To the world—both far and near. —Sper
Those rescued from sin are best able to rescue those in sin.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
June 30, 2009
Do It Now!
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READ:
Agree with your adversary quickly . . . —Matthew 5:25
In this verse, Jesus Christ laid down a very important principle by saying, "Do what you know you must do— now. Do it quickly. If you don’t, an inevitable process will begin to work ’till you have paid the last penny’ ( Matthew 5:26 ) in pain, agony, and distress." God’s laws are unchangeable and there is no escape from them. The teachings of Jesus always penetrate right to the heart of our being.
Wanting to make sure that my adversary gives me all my rights is a natural thing. But Jesus says that it is a matter of inescapable and eternal importance to me that I pay my adversary what I owe him. From our Lord’s standpoint it doesn’t matter whether I am cheated or not, but what does matter is that I don’t cheat someone else. Am I insisting on having my own rights, or am I paying what I owe from Jesus Christ’s standpoint?
Do it quickly— bring yourself to judgment now. In moral and spiritual matters, you must act immediately. If you don’t, the inevitable, relentless process will begin to work. God is determined to have His child as pure, clean, and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will allow His Spirit to use whatever process it may take to bring us to obedience. The fact that we insist on proving that we are right is almost always a clear indication that we have some point of disobedience. No wonder the Spirit of God so strongly urges us to stay steadfastly in the light! (see John 3:19-21 ).
"Agree with your adversary quickly . . . ." Have you suddenly reached a certain place in your relationship with someone, only to find that you have anger in your heart? Confess it quickly— make it right before God. Be reconciled to that person— do it now!
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Uncontrolled Fire - #5862
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
It seems as if every summer there are raging fires in the American West that destroy hundreds of thousands of acres of timberland, and sometimes homes, businesses, and sadly, even lives. When a major fire broke out near an Indian reservation that our Native team had ministered on only a few months ago, I paid pretty special attention. Sadly, that fire spread to parts of the reservation, consuming the timber that is a major part of their already impoverished economy; along with homes and property outside the reservation. It is going to take a long time to recover. The cause of that very costly fire made the whole thing even sadder. It was started by a government firefighter who was hoping there would be a small fire that would give him some work.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Uncontrolled Fire."
A man let a fire start to help meet a personal need he had. It raged out of control; it did more damage than he could have imagined in his worst nightmares. Well, that is a mistake many a man has made - and even some women - with a deadly fire that the Bible calls lust.
In a passage that warns against the costly mistakes we can make when we follow our sexual passions, God vividly describes what lust is really like. It's in Proverbs 6:25-28, our word for today from the Word of God. Here's what He says about misguided passion, "Do not desire her beauty in your heart...Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched.?" Lust is fire...it's hot coals. In the previous chapter, God described the way sexual passion was created to be. He says, "Rejoice with the wife of your youth...be ravished with her love" (Proverbs 5:18-19). In other words, save it for your wife, buddy!
It could be, though, that you are playing with the fire of sexual lust; maybe thinking, like that firefighter, that you can keep it under control. For a little while, maybe. But lust is a fire that will suddenly take you over and engulf you, and things and people that you care about as well. You may just be trying to meet a personal need, but you have no idea what a blazing inferno this can become and the damage it will do.
You may be playing with fire on the Internet, in magazines you look at or movies you watch, or just in the way you look at the opposite sex, or the way you push all the boundaries in what you're doing physically with someone. If you'll be honest with yourself, you will see increasing evidence that you're not controlling your passions. They're beginning to control you. The fire is spreading.
The first thing they do to stop a fire is burn the ground ahead of it so it will run out of fuel. You've been feeding the fire of lust. Now, while there's still time, you've got to start to starve that fire. No more fuel. Get rid of it all! And get some help to put out the fire. Confide in a spiritually mature person you trust; tell them you want to beat this and meet with them regularly as an accountability partner. And every new day, give this battle to your all-holy, all-powerful Lord to help you win it one day at a time. You have His promise in Romans 6:14, "Sin shall no longer be your master!"
Before the fire spreads, before it does any more damage, please turn and fight it with everything you've got. The landscape is scorched and scarred with the desolation of those who didn't.