Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
April 24
The Dungeon of Bitterness
If you forgive others for their sins, your Father in heaven will also forgive you for your sins.
Matthew 6:14 (NCV)
Bitterness is its own prison.
The sides are slippery with resentment. A floor of muddy anger stills the feet. The stench of betrayal fills the air and stings the eyes. A cloud of self-pity blocks the view of the tiny exit above.
Step in and look at the prisoners. Victims are chained to the walls. Victims of betrayal. Victims of abuse.
The dungeon, deep and dark, is beckoning you to enter.... You can, you know. You've experienced enough hurt....You can choose, like many, to chain yourself to your hurt.... Or you can choose, like some, to put away your hurts before they become hates....
How does God deal with your bitter heart? He reminds you that what you have is more important than what you don't have. You still have your relationship with God. No one can take that.
Jeremiah 2
Israel Forsakes God
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
" 'I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the desert,
through a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the LORD,
the firstfruits of his harvest;
all who devoured her were held guilty,
and disaster overtook them,' "
declares the LORD.
4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob,
all you clans of the house of Israel.
5 This is what the LORD says:
"What fault did your fathers find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and rifts,
a land of drought and darkness, [c]
a land where no one travels and no one lives?'
7 I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
8 The priests did not ask,
'Where is the LORD ?'
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.
9 "Therefore I bring charges against you again,"
declares the LORD.
"And I will bring charges against your children's children.
10 Cross over to the coasts of Kittim [d] and look,
send to Kedar [e] and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their [f] Glory
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, O heavens,
and shudder with great horror,"
declares the LORD.
13 "My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
14 Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
Why then has he become plunder?
15 Lions have roared;
they have growled at him.
They have laid waste his land;
his towns are burned and deserted.
16 Also, the men of Memphis [g] and Tahpanhes
have shaved the crown of your head. [h]
17 Have you not brought this on yourselves
by forsaking the LORD your God
when he led you in the way?
18 Now why go to Egypt
to drink water from the Shihor [i] ?
And why go to Assyria
to drink water from the River [j] ?
19 Your wickedness will punish you;
your backsliding will rebuke you.
Consider then and realize
how evil and bitter it is for you
when you forsake the LORD your God
and have no awe of me,"
declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
20 "Long ago you broke off your yoke
and tore off your bonds;
you said, 'I will not serve you!'
Indeed, on every high hill
and under every spreading tree
you lay down as a prostitute.
21 I had planted you like a choice vine
of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
into a corrupt, wild vine?
22 Although you wash yourself with soda
and use an abundance of soap,
the stain of your guilt is still before me,"
declares the Sovereign LORD.
23 "How can you say, 'I am not defiled;
I have not run after the Baals'?
See how you behaved in the valley;
consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
running here and there,
24 a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
sniffing the wind in her craving—
in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
at mating time they will find her.
25 Do not run until your feet are bare
and your throat is dry.
But you said, 'It's no use!
I love foreign gods,
and I must go after them.'
26 "As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,
so the house of Israel is disgraced—
they, their kings and their officials,
their priests and their prophets.
27 They say to wood, 'You are my father,'
and to stone, 'You gave me birth.'
They have turned their backs to me
and not their faces;
yet when they are in trouble, they say,
'Come and save us!'
28 Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?
Let them come if they can save you
when you are in trouble!
For you have as many gods
as you have towns, O Judah.
29 "Why do you bring charges against me?
You have all rebelled against me,"
declares the LORD.
30 "In vain I punished your people;
they did not respond to correction.
Your sword has devoured your prophets
like a ravening lion.
31 "You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD :
"Have I been a desert to Israel
or a land of great darkness?
Why do my people say, 'We are free to roam;
we will come to you no more'?
32 Does a maiden forget her jewelry,
a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
days without number.
33 How skilled you are at pursuing love!
Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.
34 On your clothes men find
the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
though you did not catch them breaking in.
Yet in spite of all this
35 you say, 'I am innocent;
he is not angry with me.'
But I will pass judgment on you
because you say, 'I have not sinned.'
36 Why do you go about so much,
changing your ways?
You will be disappointed by Egypt
as you were by Assyria.
37 You will also leave that place
with your hands on your head,
for the LORD has rejected those you trust;
you will not be helped by them.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 107
BOOK V : Psalms 107-150
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say this—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south. [a]
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
10 Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom,
prisoners suffering in iron chains,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God
and despised the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he subjected them to bitter labor;
they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom
and broke away their chains.
15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,
16 for he breaks down gates of bronze
and cuts through bars of iron.
April 24, 2009
The Father’s Faithfulness
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READ: Psalm 107:1-16
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. . . . Great is Your faithfulness. —Lamentations 3:22-23
Hudson Taylor, the humble servant of God to China, demonstrated extraordinary trust in God’s faithfulness. In his journal he wrote:
“Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One. He knows very well that His children wake up with a good appetite every morning. . . . He sustained 3 million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all. . . . Depend on it, God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”
We may be faint and weary, but our heavenly Father is all-powerful. Our feelings may fluctuate, but He is unchangeable. Even creation itself is a record of His steadfastness. That’s why we can sing these words from a hymn by Thomas Chisholm: “Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.”
What an encouragement to live for Him! Our strength for the present and hope for the future are not based on the stability of our own perseverance but on the fidelity of God. No matter what our need, we can count on the Father’s faithfulness. — Paul Van Gorder
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! —Chisholm
© Renewal 1951 Hope Publishing.
He who abandons himself to God will never be abandoned by God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 24, 2009
The Warning Against Desiring Spiritual Success
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READ:
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you . . . —Luke 10:20
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go "outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13:13 ). In Luke 10:20 , Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and those lives will be God’s testimony to us as His workers. God brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that same standard in others.
Unless the worker lives a life that "is hidden with Christ in God" ( Colossians 3:3 ), he is apt to become an irritating dictator to others, instead of an active, living disciple. Many of us are dictators, dictating our desires to individuals and to groups. But Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with an "if," never with the forceful or dogmatic statement— "You must." Discipleship carries with it an option.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Playing "Catch" With Daddy - #5815
Friday, April 24, 2009
Our son really likes to read. In fact, he's got this spot by his office window where he likes to sit in the morning and read as the sunshine comes streaming in. The one book he reads there every morning is his Bible. He wants to make sure he gets his time with Jesus right at the top of the day. But this particular day was particularly unforgettable because as he opened his eyes from praying, there was a little chair next to his big chair and our precious two-year-old granddaughter was there reading (well, as much reading as a two-year-old can do) a book. It was her toddler's Bible, and there was one like melted daddy all over the floor.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Playing 'Catch' With Daddy."
Did you know children are playing "catch" with their dads all the time? They spend their lives catching how we live, catching how we talk, catching our ways of responding, and catching our walk with God or lack thereof. Faith is contagious. So is apathy.
The spiritual responsibility of the man of the house is a recurring theme throughout the Bible, starting with the very first man. After Eve violated the restrictions God gave Adam regarding the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, God didn't come looking for Eve. He walked the garden, calling, "Where are you, Adam?" (Genesis 3:9) It was clear the buck stopped with the man. When aging Sarah laughed at God's promise that she and Abraham would have a child in their old age, guess who God asked about why she didn't believe? He didn't ask Sarah. He asked Abraham as if He was saying, "You mean after all these years around you, she doesn't have any more faith than that?" By New Testament times, God identifies the man as the Christ-figure of the home, responsible to lead the home by loving his wife with the same kind of sacrificing love that Jesus showed us.
Then, in our word for today from the Word of God, He defies our culture's copout misconception that the man is just the physical provider while the spiritual provider of the home is the woman. Ephesians 6:4 shows us what the manufacturer's manual says about how the family is designed to run: "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Dad, you're God's designated spiritual coach for your son or your daughter. He's counting on you to "instruct" them; to regularly explain God's love and God's ways to them. And He's expecting you to "train" them it says, to show them by your life what God is like, and to model for them a consistent, powerful relationship with Him. How are you doing, Coach?
Just look at your children and you may very well be looking into a mirror of the vitality and reality of your own relationship with Jesus Christ. If you're cool or cold toward God, you'll probably see it in them. If you're excited about God, about His Word, about His work, you'll probably see it in them. If you're negative and critical spiritually and they hear a lot about what's wrong with Christians, don't be surprised if they don't want much to do with Jesus. If your actions contradict your Christian words, it will be hard for them to think of Jesus as very real. If they see you responding to problems by trusting God in prayer, that's what they'll learn to do. And if they see you seeking your Lord regularly in the Bible, you may even find them next to you one day, seeking Him, too.
If you're like most of us guys, you don't like to do things you don't feel secure doing, and you may not feel secure trying to step up to spiritual leadership at home. You're afraid you'll fail. But you know, the only way you can really fail is if you don't do it. You won't nag your son or daughter into loving and following Jesus. You won't legislate them into it. Children learn what they live. Make sure as they live with you, that they're living with a walking, talking example of a man who's just in love with Jesus.
