Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
August 6
The God You Need
The LORD created the heavens. He is the God who formed the earth and made it.
Isaiah 45:18 (NCV)
You don’t need what Dorothy found. Remember her discovery in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? She and her trio followed the yellow-brick road only to discover that the wizard was a wimp! Nothing but smoke and mirrors and tin-drum thunder. Is that the kind of god you need?
You don’t need to carry the burden of a lesser god…a god on a shelf, a god in a box, or a god in a bottle. No, you need a God who can place 100 billion stars in our galaxy and 100 billion galaxies in the universe. You need a God who can shape two fists of flesh into 75 to 100 billion nerve cells, each with as many as 10,000 connections to other nerve cells, place it in a skull, and call it a brain.
And you need a God who, while so mind-numbingly mighty, can come in the soft of the night and touch you with the tenderness of an April snow.
2 Corinthians 5
Our Heavenly Dwelling
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
The Ministry of Reconciliation
11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin[c] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Galatians 6
Doing Good to All
1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5for each one should carry his own load.
August 6, 2009
Breath Mint, Anyone?
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READ: Galatians 6:1-5
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. —Galatians 6:2
A new Web site helps you tell a co-worker what you’re afraid to say in person. Comments like: “A breath mint would be beneficial today” or “Your cell phone ringer is very loud today” or “Your perfume/cologne is very strong on a regular basis.” You confront issues anonymously by having the Web site send an e-mail message for you.
It’s understandable that we’re cautious in talking to others about something that bothers us. But when it comes to confronting fellow believers about their sin, that’s serious. We might wish we could do it anonymously, yet we have to do it face to face.
Galatians 6:1-5 offers some guidelines for confronting a fellow Christian who is living a sinful lifestyle. The first requirement is that we’re close to the Lord ourselves, and that we don’t exalt ourselves as superior to the one who is sinning. Then we are to look at the situation as restoring the person, not bringing condemnation. We’re to have “a spirit of gentleness,” all the while keeping in mind that we too may be tempted. Jesus also gave instructions that can help us with issues of sin against us personally (Matt. 7:1-5; 18:15-20).
With God’s enablement we can courageously and sensitively confront and restore others. — Anne Cetas
Lord, give us courage to confront
Believers who have strayed,
And then with gentleness restore
By coming to their aid. —Sper
To help people get back on the right path, walk with them and show them the way.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 6, 2009
The Cross in Prayer
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READ:
In that day you will ask in My name . . . —John 16:26
We too often think of the Cross of Christ as something we have to get through, yet we get through for the purpose of getting into it. The Cross represents only one thing for us— complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ— and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than in prayer.
"Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" ( Matthew 6:8 ). Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace.
". . . I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you . . ." ( John 16:26-27 ). Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Jesus Christ? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital life? If so, then "in that day" you will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.
When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of Satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason— God uses these times to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Maestro at His Best - #5889
Thursday, August 6, 2009
When the famous violinist Paganini played a concert in one of the great halls of Europe, it was equivalent to the draw of a modern rock concert. The story is told of one such night in Paris. As Paganini appeared on the stage, the excited buzz of the audience turned to expectant applause. But as the maestro began to play, a string broke on his exquisite violin. Any concern passed very quickly as the artist picked up the tune on his remaining three strings. Unbelievably, another string snapped, followed moments later by a third string. Now the buzz in the audience was more anxious, even disgruntled; it wasn't expectant anymore. But the old maestro just raised his hand - called for silence. As the audience became quiet again, he made a simple announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen Paganini and one string." What followed was easily the most amazing musical performance that crowd had ever seen, or ever would see, as the master played a rich and flawless melody, on one string.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Maestro at His Best."
When did the master most powerfully demonstrate his skill? When he had the least to work with - one string. When does the Lord Jesus, our Master, most powerfully demonstrate how much He can do? When He has the least to work with. When our strings are broken and we have almost nothing left, that is when He plays His masterpieces.
That's what the great Apostle Paul learned when virtually all the strings of his life had broken. His testimony is in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, our word for today from the Word of God. Paul had been given some spiritual revelations that no man had ever experienced before. He says, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh...Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.'"
Because Paul experiences God's power the most when he has nothing left, he says, "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me...For when I am weak, then I am strong." Why? Because the less there is of you, the more there is of God and the more of His power you experience. Which actually can make you, much like Paul, really embrace your hard times, your hurting times with a sense of expectancy instead of dread or discouragement. It's not that you like the pain, but you realize what that pain can produce. And all through it, you have God's unbreakable promise, "My grace is sufficient for you."
Our weakness means an opportunity for a display of His strength, His glory: a chance to experience God's ability to heal, to intervene, to carry you. Malcolm Muggeridge, the brilliant British journalist who gloriously came to Christ late in life, put it this way, "Everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness."
So maybe most of your strings have broken and you're down to one string. That's the moment when the Maestro is at His very best. He lovingly holds you in His arms and He says, "Almighty God and one string." He's about to play something beautiful, something unforgettable, something amazing through your life.