Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
July 14
Love Accepts All Things
Love...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NKJV)
Wouldn't it be nice if love were like a cafeteria line? What if you could look at the person with whom you live and select what you want and pass on what you don't? What if parents could do this with kids? "I'll take a plate of good grades and cute smiles, and I'm passing on the teenage identity crisis and tuition bills."
What if kids could do the same with parents? "Please give me a helping of allowances and free lodging but no rules or curfews, thank you."
And spouse with spouse? "H'm, how about a bowl of good health and good moods. But job transfers, in-laws, and laundry are not on my diet,"
Wouldn't it be great if love were like a cafeteria line? It would be easier. It would be neater. It would be painless and peaceful. But you know what? It wouldn’t be love. Love doesn't accept just a few things. Love is willing to accept all things.
Acts 3
Peter Heals the Crippled Beggar
1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" 5So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
6Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." 7Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Peter Speaks to the Onlookers
11While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.
17"Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ[m] would suffer. 19Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.'[n]
24"Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. 25And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.'[o] 26When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
July 14, 2009
Love Is For Losers?
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READ: 1 Corinthians 13
Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. —1 Corinthians 13:13
You can learn a lot about a person by what his or her T-shirt says. Recently, one of these messages caught my attention as I walked through a local shopping mall. A young woman wore a bright red T-shirt that said, “Love Is for Losers.” Maybe she thought it was clever or provocative, even funny. Or perhaps she had been hurt by a relationship and had pulled away from others rather than risk being hurt again. Either way, the T-shirt got me thinking.
Is love for losers? The fact is, when we love, we take risks. People could very well hurt us, disappoint us, or even leave us. Love can lead to loss.
The Bible, though, challenges us to higher ground in loving others. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul describes what it means to live out God’s kind of love. The person who exercises godly love doesn’t do so for personal benefit or gain but rather “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (13:7). Why? Because godly love endures beyond life’s hurts by pulling us relentlessly toward the never-diminishing care of the Father.
So, perhaps love is for losers—for it is in times of loss and disappointment that we need God the most. Even in our struggles, we know that “love never fails.” — Bill Crowder
Unfailing is God’s matchless love,
So kind, so pure, so true;
And those who draw upon that love
Show love in what they do. —D. De Haan
God’s love never fails.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
July 14, 2009
Suffering Afflictions and Going the Second Mile
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READ:
I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also —Matthew 5:39
This verse reveals the humiliation of being a Christian. In the natural realm, if a person does not hit back, it is because he is a coward. But in the spiritual realm, it is the very evidence of the Son of God in him if he does not hit back. When you are insulted, you must not only not resent it, but you must make it an opportunity to exhibit the Son of God in your life. And you cannot imitate the nature of Jesus— it is either in you or it is not. A personal insult becomes an opportunity for a saint to reveal the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus.
The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is not, "Do your duty," but is, in effect, "Do what is not your duty." It is not your duty to go the second mile, or to turn the other cheek, but Jesus said that if we are His disciples, we will always do these things. We will not say, "Oh well, I just can’t do any more, and I’ve been so misrepresented and misunderstood." Every time I insist on having my own rights, I hurt the Son of God, while in fact I can prevent Jesus from being hurt if I will take the blow myself. That is the real meaning of filling "up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . ." ( Colossians 1:24 ). A disciple realizes that it is his Lord’s honor that is at stake in his life, not his own honor.
Never look for righteousness in the other person, but never cease to be righteous yourself. We are always looking for justice, yet the essence of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is— Never look for justice, but never cease to give it.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Trading Empty for Full - #5872
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Water! Drinking lots of water is good for your health. So I usually have a big mug of water in my office and bottles of water with me when I travel. A while back, my wife and I were driving to some ministry events, and another couple from our team was traveling with us in the back seat. And they got to be the keeper of the water and the snacks, of course. But let's stick with the healthy stuff. This little drill developed, thanks to the thoughtfulness of my buddy in the back seat. When I finished a bottle of water, I handed the empty bottle back to him so it could be dumped in our garbage bag. But as I handed my empty to him, there he was with a full bottle to place in my other hand.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trading Empty for Full."
Not a bad deal. I gave my friend what was empty and he replaced it with what was full. Just like Jesus. I handed him a life that was pretty empty, and He gave me back a life that is amazingly full. He's done that for countless people. He would love to do that for you.
I know that because of what He said in John 10:10. It's our word for today from the Word of God. He said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; (that's the devil He's talking about) I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." I remember talking with a senior football player at our local high school about all the great things that had happened in his senior year. He told me he had wanted four things: a championship, a scholarship, more friends, and a closer family. He had gotten all four. But then he actually looked at me with tears in his eyes and he asked in total frustration, "Then why am I so empty?"
That's the question a lot of people have - people of all ages. "Why am I so empty?" Two days after I talked with that football player, the successful and deeply religious president of a local service club said basically the same thing to me. There is this emptiness that nothing seems to fill. And it's not for lack of trying. We've hoped that the hole in our heart would be filled by a relationship, by achievement, by experiences, by a family, or by a religion. But we keep coming up empty, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and wondering what goes in the hole in our heart.
Jesus goes in the hole in your heart. The Bible actually reveals that "all things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). You were created by Jesus, you were created for Jesus, and you're going to have a hole in your heart until you have Jesus. Tragically, we have chosen to live "for me" instead of "for Him." And this hijacking of our life from our Creator, this sin, has put us in a futile orbit away from Him. But that's why Jesus came. That's why Jesus died - to pay the price for our rebellion so we could finally belong to the One we were made for.
This day could be the day when you hand your empty to Jesus, and He gives you in exchange a life that's finally full, because He's in it. But you have to reach for Him. You have to surrender the self-rule of your life, and you put your trust in Him to be the forgiver of every wrong thing you've ever done. He's the only one who can forgive it, because He's the only one who died to pay the price for it.
If you don't know you belong to Him; there's been that moment in your life where you have made what He died on the cross for you personally. Well, this could be the day to do that. And you do it just by talking to Him, and maybe in words something like this: "Jesus, I was made by you. I was made for you. I have lived pretty much for me, and I'm done with that. I resign the running of my own life. Jesus, I believe that you died to pay the death penalty for every wrong thing I have ever done. You loved me that much. I want you, and beginning today I give myself to you." If you want to begin your relationship with Him today, and if you'd like to know more about how to be sure you belong to Him, I'd encourage you to check out our website as soon as you can today. It's YoursForLife.net.
You've been empty because you've been missing the One you were made for. Today's your day to trade in empty for full.