Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
January 29
Jesus Dispels Doubt
They were fearful and terrified…but Jesus said, “Why are you troubled?…It is I myself!”
Luke 24:37-38 (NCV)
They had betrayed their Master. When Jesus needed them they had scampered. And now they were having to deal with the shame. Seeking forgiveness, but not knowing where to look for it, the disciples came back. They gravitated to that same upper room that contained the sweet memories of broken bread and symbolic wine.
They came back. Each with a scrapbook full of memories and a thin thread of hope. Each knowing that it is all over, but in his heart hoping that the impossible will happen once more. “If I had just one more chance.”…
And just when the gloom gets good and thick, just when their wishful thinking is falling victim to logic, just when someone says, “How I’d give my immortal soul to see him one more time,” a familiar face walks through the wall.
My, what an ending. Or, better said, what a beginning!
Psalm 8
For the director of music. According to gittith [a].
A psalm of David.
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise [b]
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 71
1 In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness;
turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of evil and cruel men.
5 For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD,
my confidence since my youth.
6 From birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother's womb.
I will ever praise you.
7 I have become like a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long.
9 Do not cast me away when I am old;
do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
those who wait to kill me conspire together.
11 They say, "God has forsaken him;
pursue him and seize him,
for no one will rescue him."
12 Be not far from me, O God;
come quickly, O my God, to help me.
13 May my accusers perish in shame;
may those who want to harm me
be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 But as for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure.
16 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD;
I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.
17 Since my youth, O God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
18 Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, O God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your might to all who are to come.
19 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God,
you who have done great things.
Who, O God, is like you?
20 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter,
you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth
you will again bring me up.
21 You will increase my honor
and comfort me once again.
22 I will praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praise to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy
when I sing praise to you—
I, whom you have redeemed.
24 My tongue will tell of your righteous acts
all day long,
for those who wanted to harm me
have been put to shame and confusion.
January 29, 2009
The Aging Process
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READ: Psalm 71
Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails. —Psalm 71:9
I was having breakfast with a friend who had recently celebrated his 60th birthday. We discussed the “trauma” of the number 6 being the first digit in his age and all that the age of 60 implies (retirement, social security, etc.). We also pondered the fact that he felt so much younger than such a “large” number would seem to indicate.
Then the conversation turned to the lessons, joys, and blessings he’d found in living those 60 years, and he said, “You know, it isn’t really that bad. In fact, it’s pretty exciting.” The lessons of the past had brought a change in how he viewed the present.
Such is the aging process. We learn from our past in order to live in our present—a lesson reflected on by the psalmist: “For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth” (Ps. 71:5). He continued, “By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You” (v.6). As the psalmist looked back, he clearly saw the faithfulness of God. With confidence in that faithfulness, he could face the future and its uncertainties—and so can we.
May we say with the psalmist, “I will praise You—and Your faithfulness, O my God!” (v.22). — Bill Crowder
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be. —Chisholm
© Renewal 1951 Hope Publishing Company.
As the years add up, God’s faithfulness keeps multiplying.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 29, 2009
How Could Someone Be So Ignorant!
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READ:
Who are You, Lord? —Acts 26:15
"The Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand . . ." (Isaiah 8:11). There is no escape when our Lord speaks. He always comes using His authority and taking hold of our understanding. Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you. God speaks in the language you know best— not through your ears, but through your circumstances.
God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. We say, "I know that this is what I should do"-and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We show our ignorance of Him in the very way we decide to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, and hurt Him by our defense of Him. We push His claims in the spirit of the devil; our words sound all right, but the spirit is that of an enemy. "He . . . rebuked them, and said, ’You do not know what manner of spirit you are of’ " (Luke 9:55). The spirit of our Lord in His followers is described in 1 Corinthians 13 .
Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty, yet have hurt Him in the process, I can be sure that this was not my duty. My way will not be to foster a meek and quiet spirit, only the spirit of self-satisfaction. We presume that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord— "I delight to do Your will, O my God . . ." (Psalm 40:8).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When the Captain Is Not On the Bridge - #5754
Thursday, January 29, 2009
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The Greek ferry boat was loaded with more than 500 passengers - many were visitors from other countries. Suddenly, that ship plowed into a rocky outcropping, and in minutes the ferry went down two miles from shore, claiming the lives of 66 people. But it was a tragedy that never had to happen. Those rock outcroppings are clearly marked on navigational charts, the ferry had passed by them countless times, and there is a light atop them that is visible for seven miles. But the captain and three key crew members were not at their posts that night; they were reportedly down below watching a soccer match on television. A Greek newspaper headline proclaimed, "A blind course on autopilot." As his ship was on a collision course, the captain was not on the bridge.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When the Captain Is Not On the Bridge."
Families can go aground the same way that Greek ferry did. Children can crash for the same reason that ship did. The people who should be at the helm are not where they should be.
If you're a Mom or Dad, it's important to look in the mirror and take inventory every once in a while. God has given you the most important command of all. You've got in your care, lives created in His image, each one a divinely designed original. And He's trusting you to give them the love, the attention, the discipline, and the spiritual direction that they need to make them all God created them to be.
But there are a lot of people and pressures that are pulling on us parents. Some of them are screaming for our attention while our children are just whisper for it. Could it be that you've become preoccupied with less important things? Actually, almost everything is a less important thing than your priceless trust from God.
The stewardship God has given us when He gave us our children is expressed in some beautiful words in our word for today from the Word of God. When you apply them to your son or daughter, they're a wonderful expression of this holy stewardship. Isaiah 8:18 simply says, "Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me." Now, there is the highest and holiest assignment a man or woman can be given!
Tragically, some of us may have left the bridge. We're preoccupied with other priorities. We may be abandoning the leadership our child needs on a daily basis - the life lessons that we explain from that day's events: the loving reinforcement of consistent boundaries, the godly discipline for going out of bounds, the daily listening we need to do just to keep up with this constantly growing and changing little person, the praying they need us to do with them in situation after situation. Are you there for all of that?
Remember, the captain of the ship that went down didn't commit any overt crime; his deadly mistake was one of neglect. It's what he didn't do. That is what did so much damage, and that could be what's happening in your home, with your family.
It could be that with all the pressures and all the demands on you, the priorities of your life have gotten somewhat inverted recently. It's time for you, if you're a Mom or Dad, to recommit yourself to the central, non-negotiable priority of steering your family in the right direction. Listen, you don't have to leave the bridge for very long for someone you love to crash.
