Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
August 3
God Still Comes
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those whose spirits have been crushed.
Psalm 34:18 (NCV)
"Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us," Paul penned. "The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope" (Rom.15:4).
These are not just Sunday school stories. Not romantic fables.... They are historical moments in which a real God met real pain so we could answer the question, "Where is God when I hurt?"
How does God react to dashed hopes? Read the story of Jairus. How does the Father feel about those who are ill? Stand with him at the pool of Bethesda. Do you long for God to speak to your lonely heart? Then listen as he speaks to the Emmaus-bound disciples....
He's not doing it just for them. He's doing it for me. He's doing it for you....
The God who spoke still speaks.... The God who came still comes. He comes into our world. He comes into your world. He comes to do what you can't.
1 Corinthians 2
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[e] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
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"[f]— 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.[g] 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?"[h] But we have the mind of Christ.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 30
A psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple. Of David. [a]
1 I will exalt you, O LORD,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 O LORD my God, I called to you for help
and you healed me.
3 O LORD, you brought me up from the grave [b] ;
you spared me from going down into the pit.
4 Sing to the LORD, you saints of his;
praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may remain for a night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.
6 When I felt secure, I said,
"I will never be shaken."
7 O LORD, when you favored me,
you made my mountain [c] stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
I was dismayed.
8 To you, O LORD, I called;
to the Lord I cried for mercy:
9 "What gain is there in my destruction, [d]
in my going down into the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me;
O LORD, be my help."
11 You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.
August 3, 2009
Being Glad
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 30
This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. —Psalm 118:24
One of my favorite childhood books was Pollyanna, the story of the optimistic young girl who always found something to be glad about—even when bad things happened.
I was reminded recently of that literary friend when my real-life friend fell and broke her arm while riding her bicycle. Marianne told me how thankful she was that she was able to ride all the way back home and how grateful she was that she wouldn’t need to have surgery. It was her left arm (she’s right-handed), she said, so she would still be able to work. And wasn’t it great, she marveled, that she has good bones, so her arm should heal fine! And wasn’t it wonderful that it hadn’t been any worse!
Whew! Marianne is an example of someone who has learned to rejoice in spite of trouble. She has a confidence that God will care for her—no matter what.
Suffering eventually touches us all. And in times of difficulty, thankfulness is usually not our first response. But I think God looks at us with pleasure when we find reasons to be thankful (1 Thess. 5:16-18). As we realistically look for the good despite our bad circumstances, we can be grateful that God is holding us close. It is when we trust in His goodness that we find gladness. — Cindy Hess Kasper
Under His wings, what a refuge in sorrow!
How the heart yearningly turns to His rest!
Often when earth has no balm for my healing,
There I find comfort, and there I am blessed. —Cushing
Thankfulness finds something good in every circumstance.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 3, 2009
The Compelling Purpose of God
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
He . . . said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . —Luke 18:31
Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, "I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me" ( John 5:30 ). Seeking to do "the will of the Father" was the one dominating concern throughout our Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. ". . . He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem . . ." ( Luke 9:51 ).
The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose of God. "You did not choose Me, but I chose you . . ." ( John 15:16 ).
We are not taken into a conscious agreement with God’s purpose— we are taken into God’s purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no idea what God’s goal may be; as we continue, His purpose becomes even more and more vague. God’s aim appears to have missed the mark, because we are too nearsighted to see the target at which He is aiming. At the beginning of the Christian life, we have our own ideas as to what God’s purpose is. We say, "God means for me to go over there," and, "God has called me to do this special work." We do what we think is right, and yet the compelling purpose of God remains upon us. The work we do is of no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is simply the scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan. "He took the twelve aside . . ." ( Luke 18:31 ). God takes us aside all the time. We have not yet understood all there is to know of the compelling purpose of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Word With You - Your Mission
Monday, August 3, 2009
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Our daughter was driving through town with our four-year-old grandson in the back seat. As she passed a local senior housing facility, she said, "Honey, that's where my grandfather lived until he died." At that point, our four-year-old jumped in with a respectful correction of his Mommy's choice of words. "Until Jesus called him home," he said. There was a pause, and then our grandson added, "And someday Jesus will call me home too."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Last Call."
Not bad for a four-year-old. Well, OK, I know I sound like a grandfather, but that little guy actually has this death thing figured out better than a lot of us grownup people do. We don't decide when it's over, God does. And the thing you want to have happen on the day you take your last breath is for Jesus to call you home to heaven. Unfortunately, not everyone's going home. And the alternative is just too eternally awful to contemplate.
The Bible makes it clear in 1 John 5:11-12 , our word for today from the Word of God, that we're all in one of two groups, headed for one of two possible destinations. It says, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Notice, it doesn't say eternal life is in His religion or His rules or in living right. The only One who can get us to heaven is His Son, who died to pay for all the sin we all have; sin that makes it impossible for us to enter a holy God's heaven. The Bible continues: "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
There it is. Either you're totally forgiven or you're still carrying your sin and its penalty. Either you're headed for heaven or you're headed for hell. And Jesus indicated that there will be surprises both places; people that humans would never forgive who are going to be in heaven because they pinned all their hopes for rescue on Jesus. And there will be people in hell who had tons of Christianity but somehow missed grabbing Jesus as if He were their only hope.
The truth is that your last call can come at any time. Speaking to God in Psalm 139:16 , King David says, "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be." You're not going to die until your work on earth is done. And you can't stay one day longer when it's done. And God decides when that is. For a 17-year-old girl who attended a youth event I spoke for a while back, the call came in a head-on collision on the way home. And because she had put her trust in Jesus that night, when she got the call, she was called home.
You can't postpone God's call. And you can't be ready for it any other way than to be sure you belong to Jesus - the only One who can remove the sin that will keep you out of heaven. You say, "But I'm a good person." I'm not good enough, not for a perfect God. That's why Jesus came, that's why He died, that's why He rose again. And it's why He's knocking on the door of your heart this very day. He wants you in heaven with Him forever. But you have to choose that by consciously and totally giving yourself to Him. If you've never really done that, let this be the day you finally say, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I was made by You, I was made for You. I've lived for me. I'm done with that. I'm putting all my hope in the One who died to pay for every sin I've ever done. Now, take me to Your heaven someday and give me the life here I was made for."
If you're ready to begin that relationship with him, I would urge you to go over and check out our website as soon as you can today. It's YoursForLife.net. I think you'll find there some helpful guidelines and information on how to be sure you belong to Jesus. It's YoursForLife.net. Or if you'd like the booklet Yours For Life, you can call for it toll free at 877-741-1200.
It just doesn't make sense to risk one more day without Jesus, does it? So He's calling you right now to give yourself to Him, so that one day when the last call comes He can call you home.