Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
July 6
Heed the Signals
Honor God and obey his commands, because this is all people must do.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 (NCV)
Here are some God-given, time-tested truths that define the way you should navigate your life. Observe them and enjoy secure passage. Ignore them and crash against the ragged rocks of reality...:
* Love God more than you fear hell.
* Make major decisions in a cemetery. * When no one is watching, live as if someone is. * Succeed at home first. * Don't spend tomorrow's money today. * Pray twice as much as you fret. * God has forgiven you; you'd be wise to do the same.
Luke 22
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
The Last Supper
7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover."
9"Where do you want us to prepare for it?" they asked.
10He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' 12He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there."
13They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
14When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."
17After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
19And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."
20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him." 23They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.
24Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. 26But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. 28You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
31"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you[a] as wheat. 32But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
33But he replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death."
34Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me."
35Then Jesus asked them, "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" "Nothing," they answered.
36He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 37It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'[b]; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."
38The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords." "That is enough," he replied.
Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives
39Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." 41He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." 43An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.[c]
45When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46"Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation."
Jesus Arrested
47While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, 48but Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"
49When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" 50And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
51But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him.
52Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? 53Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns."
Peter Disowns Jesus
54Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. 55But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. 56A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him."
57But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said.
58A little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." "Man, I am not!" Peter replied.
59About an hour later another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean."
60Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. 61The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." 62And he went outside and wept bitterly.
The Guards Mock Jesus
63The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64They blindfolded him and demanded, "Prophesy! Who hit you?" 65And they said many other insulting things to him.
Jesus Before Pilate and Herod
66At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. 67"If you are the Christ,[d]" they said, "tell us."
Jesus answered, "If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God."
70They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied, "You are right in saying I am."
71Then they said, "Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion:
2 Corinthians 4:8-18 (New International Version)
8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken."[a]With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
July 6, 2009
Bubbles On The Border
ODB RADIO: Listen Now DownloadREAD: 2 Corinthians 4:8-18
We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. —2 Corinthians 4:18
Stuck in a long line at the US-Canada border, Joel Schoon Tanis had to do something to lighten the mood! He reached for his bottles of bubble-making solution, bounded out of the car, and began blowing bubbles. He handed bottles to other drivers too, and he says that “soon there were bubbles everywhere. . . . It’s amazing what bubbles do for people.” The line didn’t move any faster, but “suddenly everyone was happy,” Joel says.
“What we see depends mainly on what we look for,” said British statesman John Lubbock (1834–1913). A good attitude and the right focus help us to handle life joyfully, even though it doesn’t change our circumstances.
Paul encouraged the Corinthians in their trials: “Do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
So what’s unseen and eternal that we can look at? The character of God is an excellent place to focus. He is good (Ps. 25:8), He is just (Isa. 30:18), He is forgiving (1 John 1:9), and He is faithful (Deut. 7:9).
Pondering God’s character can give us joy in the midst of our struggles. — Anne Cetas
The eyes of faith when fixed on ChristGive hope for what’s ahead;But focus on life’s obstacles,And faith gives way to dread. —D. De Haan
When Christ is the center of your focus, all else will come into proper perspective.
TODAY'S MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST, by Oswald Chambers
July 6, 2009
Visions Become Reality
ODB RADIO: DownloadREAD:
The parched ground shall become a pool . . . —Isaiah 35:7
We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.
Life is not as idle ore,But iron dug from central gloom,And battered by the shocks of doomTo shape and use.
God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.
The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.
A Word with You, from Ron Hutchcraft:
The Wound Is the Battle - #5866
Monday, July 6, 2009
If an American soldier gets wounded in combat these days, his chances for recovery just got a whole lot better than they have ever been because of the beads. It's actually a new technology that is being used to treat combat wounds. These dissolvable beads are applied to the wound and they go deeper than any previous cleansing agents have ever gone. In fact, they can even penetrate bone. One of the doctors who helped develop this new treatment made this interesting observation about the battle to head off infection in a soldier's wound. He said, "The wound is the battle; the infection is the war." I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Wound Is the Battle."
If you can win the battle by cleansing the wound right away, then you can win the war by heading off the infection. It's a strategy more of us should be using to prevent the kind of spiritual infection that poisons your joy, your peace, and your closeness to God. The wound is any point in your life where sin has been able to get in - it's that first detour from what you know is right. The infection is the widespread loss of spiritual health and power that damages so much that we care about, and it can be prevented by a prompt cleansing - a cleansing that goes deep - and there is such a cleansing.
God talks about it in 1 John 1:7-9, and it's our word for today from the Word of God. It could be the very thing you need right now to heal your heart and restore you to the spiritual health that you once enjoyed. God says, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." What a promise this is! Total cleansing and total restoring if you confess that sin, which means calling it what God calls it.
You might say, "Not after what I've done. You don't know how awful it is." No, but God knows. And He's the One who said, "The blood of Jesus...purifies us from all sin." That includes whatever you have done, no matter how deep and no matter how frequent the sin. The cleansing agent is "the blood of Jesus" it says. The blood that He shed on the cross as the payment for every wrong thing we have ever done. Because, in the Bible's words, "without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22). What no ritual can do, no religion, no church, Jesus can do because the shedding of His blood paid for every sin.
But to head off spiritual infection, you need to treat that sin-wound promptly. Don't let your sins pile up, unconfessed, uncleansed. As soon as you realize you've blown it, deal with it immediately, call it sin and bring it to the cross of Jesus. And just because you've fallen down doesn't mean you have to stay down and start some cycle of repeated sin. Satan may be telling you, "You blew it! It's over." That's a lie. Jesus died so you could get forgiven, get right up, and keep on walking! This very day you may need to bring some of your recent junk under the blood of Jesus which "purifies us from all sin."
And if you've never given your life to this One who gave His life for you, let this be the day that you trust Him as your Savior from your sin - the only One who can forgive it because He's the only One who paid for it. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." If you want to begin that relationship and want to be sure you belong to Him, there's a lot of helpful information at our website about that very thing. And I want to invite you to check it out today - it's YoursForLife.net. A lot of people have found hope and help there, and maybe you will today.
Jesus paid the ultimate price so the wound of our sin need never become a fatal infection. Today, you could experience that wonderful feeling of being clean and going to bed tonight forgiven.
