Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
June 12
Thinking of You
Pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks.
Philippians 4:6 (NCV)
Heaven knows no difference between Sunday morning and Wednesday afternoon. God longs to speak as clearly in the workplace as he does in the sanctuary. He longs to be worshiped when we sit at the dinner table and not just when we come to his communion table. You may go days without thinking of him, but there's never a moment when he's not thinking of you.
Knowing this, we understand Paul's rigorous goal: "We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5). We can fathom why he urges us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17), "be constant in prayer" (Rom. 12:12)... and "let heaven fill your thoughts" (Col. 4:2 TLB).
Mark 2
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7"Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, 11"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
The Calling of Levi
13Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Jesus Questioned About Fasting
18Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?"
19Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
21"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."
Lord of the Sabbath
23One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
25He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
27Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 119:161-168 (New International Version)
S Sin and Shin
161 Rulers persecute me without cause,
but my heart trembles at your word.
162 I rejoice in your promise
like one who finds great spoil.
163 I hate and abhor falsehood
but I love your law.
164 Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous laws.
165 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.
166 I wait for your salvation, O LORD,
and I follow your commands.
167 I obey your statutes,
for I love them greatly.
168 I obey your precepts and your statutes,
for all my ways are known to you.
June 12, 2009
A Fair Trade
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READ: Psalm 119:161-168
I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds great treasure. —Psalm 119:162
Scott and Mary Crickmore poured 15 years of their lives into helping to translate the New Testament in the Maasina dialect. It was for the Fulani tribe in the West African nation of Mali.
After the initial draft, Mary visited nearby villages and read it to people. She sat in huts with a group of men or women listening to them discuss what they understood. That helped her to make sure the words they were using in the translation were accurate and clear.
Some people would think that the Crickmores’ sacrifice was too great—giving up their comfortable lifestyle, changing their diet to mush and rice, and living in less-than-ideal circumstances for those 15 years. But the Crickmores say it was “a fair trade,” because now the Fulani people have the Word of God in a language they can read.
The psalmist delighted in God’s Word. He stood in awe of it, rejoiced over it, loved it, and obeyed it (Ps. 119:161-168). He found great peace and hope in the Word.
The Fulani people are now able to discover the “great treasure” (v.162) of God’s Word. Would you agree with the Crickmores that any effort and sacrifice to get the Bible to others is “a fair trade”? — Anne Cetas
The Bible brings great hope and peace,
Beyond all earthly measure;
So we must share it with all those
Who don’t possess this treasure. —Sper
One measure of our love for God is what we’re willing to do to share His Word with others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
June 12, 2009
Getting There (2)
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READ:
They said to Him, ’Rabbi . . . where are You staying?’ He said to them, ’Come and see’ —John 1:38-39
Where our self-interest sleeps and the real interest is awakened. "They . . . remained with Him that day . . . ." That is about all some of us ever do. We stay with Him a short time, only to wake up to our own realities of life. Our self-interest rises up and our abiding with Him is past. Yet there is no circumstance of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.
"You are Simon . . . . You shall be called Cephas" ( John 1:42 ). God writes our new name only on those places in our lives where He has erased our pride, self-sufficiency, and self-interest. Some of us have our new name written only in certain spots, like spiritual measles. And in those areas of our lives we look all right. When we are in our best spiritual mood, you would think we were the highest quality saints. But don’t dare look at us when we are not in that mood. A true disciple is one who has his new name written all over him— self-interest, pride, and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.
Pride is the sin of making "self" our god. And some of us today do this, not like the Pharisee, but like the tax collector (see Luke 18:9-14 ). For you to say, "Oh, I’m no saint," is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, "I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ." Why aren’t you a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one. You say it would be all right if God saved you and took you straight to heaven. That is exactly what He will do! And not only do we make our home with Him, but Jesus said of His Father and Himself, ". . . We will come to him and make Our home with him" ( John 14:23 ). Put no conditions on your life— let Jesus be everything to you, and He will take you home with Him not only for a day, but for eternity.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Hugging the Wrong Thing - #5850
Friday, June 12, 2009
Little Cindy had been a bad girl. She'd been sent from the dinner table to her room. After a little while, Mom and Dad thought the point had been made. They knew that children, of course, need to be assured of our love when we've disciplined them. So, Daddy went upstairs, opened the door to Cindy's room, and found her in bed, under her covers, snuggling with her arm wrapped tightly around her favorite dolly. Her father sat on the bed and he just gently said, "Cindy, I love you." Then he held out his arms to hug her. For a moment, the little girl just looked straight ahead and she hugged her dolly closer. But that couldn't last. Very soon, Cindy dropped her dolly and grabbed her Daddy in a big hug. Because a dolly is no substitute for a daddy!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hugging the Wrong Thing."
When little Cindy felt as if she couldn't have her Daddy's hugs, she resorted to something that couldn't be as good as a Daddy. Sadly, many grownups make that same kind of mistake - married grownups. We feel like we're not getting the love we need from the person that's our husband or wife, so we start hugging something else.
It's a strange, but all too common phenomenon. When we don't feel our mate is loving us in our language of love and not meeting our needs, we subconsciously start pouring ourself into something or someone else to fill the gap. And that's where the most important of all human relationships starts to drift, and divide, and deteriorate. Pretty soon, two people who pledged that they would be one until death did them part are living in the same house but living in two different worlds.
We set ourselves up for that heartache when we start getting away from the Designer's blueprint for marriage, spelled out for the first husband and wife in history. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Genesis 2, beginning in verse 18. "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.' ...the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man...a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." That's the total merging of two lives, and that's the Master Plan. He is for her, she is for him, and together they will walk with God and rule what He has given them.
Tragically, sin entered the garden and entered their relationship, and drove a wedge between them. Sin is still doing that, and we help it happen with our own neglect. If a woman feels she is not the center of her husband's priorities and his affections, she turns to her children or other relationships or other arenas to meet her need. If a man is not feeling secure in his wife's love, he'll look for affirmation and identity somewhere else, by "marrying" his work, or marrying his hobby, or even with the attention of another woman.
If you sense that happening, now is the time to take your heart back to that altar where you pledged to make him or her your number one. Let your needs be known, gently not accusingly. And if necessary, seek out counseling together to get back to your first love. Or maybe an even greater love.
Face the responsibility you have for the distance that's been developing. Put aside whatever "dolly" you've been hugging for security and wrap both arms around the person you pledged your life to. Yes, you have to work at this oneness that God created marriage to bring. But it is so worth the work; so worth the sacrifices. If you're married, God intended you to find in one another the harbor for which our hearts truly long.
