Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 15
Headed Home
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Ephesians 1:4 (NKJV)
Search the faces of the Cap Haitian orphanage for Carinette...The girl with the long nose and bushy hair and a handful of photos...The photos bear the images of her future family. She's been adopted.
Her adoptive parents are friends of mine. They brought her pictures, a teddy bear, granola bars, and cookies. Carinette shared the goodies and asked the director to guard her bear, but she keeps the pictures. They remind her of her home-to-be. Within a month, two at the most, she'll be there. She knows the day is coming....Any day now her father will appear. He came once to claim her. He'll come again to carry her home. Till then she lives with a heart headed home.
Shouldn't we all? Our Father paid us a visit too. Have we not been claimed? Adopted?... God searched you out. Before you knew you needed adopting, he'd already filed the papers and selected the wallpaper for your room.
Revelation 20
The Thousand Years
1And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
4I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Satan's Doom
7When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
The Dead Are Judged
11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Philippians 3:3-11 (New International Version)
3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
September 15, 2009
Letting Go
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READ: Philippians 3:3-11
What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. —Philippians 3:7
It has been said that “one person’s junk is another’s treasure.” When David Dudley tried to help his parents clear their house of “unnecessary items” before moving to a smaller home, he found it very difficult. He was often angered by his parents’ refusal to part with things they had not used for decades. Finally, David’s father helped him understand that even the worn-out, useless items were tied to close friends and important events. Clearing the clutter felt like throwing away their very lives.
A spiritual parallel to our reluctance to let go of the clutter in our homes may be our inability to clear our hearts of the attitudes that weigh us down.
For many years, Saul of Tarsus clung to the “righteousness” he had earned by obeying God’s law. His pedigree and performance were prized possessions until he encountered Jesus in a blinding moment on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-8). Face to face with the risen Savior, he let go of his cherished self-effort and later wrote, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ” (Phil. 3:7).
When the Holy Spirit urges us to release our grip on any attitude that keeps us from following Christ, we find true freedom in letting go. — David C. McCasland
Speak to us, Lord, till shamed by Thy great giving
Our hands unclasp to set our treasures free;
Our wills, our love, our dear ones, our possessions,
All gladly yielded, gracious Lord, to Thee. —Anon.
Through Christ we have the freedom to let go.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 15, 2009
What To Renounce
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READ:
We have renounced the hidden things of shame . . . —2 Corinthians 4:2
Have you "renounced the hidden things of shame" in your life— the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind— renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all. Envy, jealousy, and strife don’t necessarily arise from your old nature of sin, but from the flesh which was used for these kinds of things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1-3 ). You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.
". . . not walking in craftiness. . ." ( 2 Corinthians 4:2 ). This means not resorting to something simply to make your own point. This is a terrible trap. You know that God will allow you to work in only one way— the way of truth. Then be careful never to catch people through the other way— the way of deceit. If you act deceitfully, God’s blight and ruin will be upon you. What may be craftiness for you, may not be for others— God has called you to a higher standard. Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest— your best for His glory. For you, doing certain things would mean craftiness coming into your life for a purpose other than what is the highest and best, and it would dull the motivation that God has given you. Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in his faith than the beliefs he has already accepted
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Verdict and the Penalty Are Already In - #5917
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
America has become a nation of trial junkies. We've got a whole TV channel called "Court TV." Many of us are fascinated with high-profile trials that often headline our news. Legal proceedings seem to grind on for months, if not years, and then weeks of hotly-contested testimony. Then suddenly it's in the hands of the jury, and we check the news to see if the verdict is in. Then, after all those months, it's over. In a moment, the verdict is in. When the verdict is guilty, there is one more decision to be announced - the penalty. In some cases, of course, that penalty is death.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Verdict and the Penalty Are Already In."
There's one verdict, and one sentence we don't have to wait for - yours and mine. The verdict and the penalty are already in. Not from a jury, but from the Judge. The Judge we must all face - God Himself. Deep down inside, we know that on the other side of our last heartbeat, which He decides by the way, we'll face our Creator. The Bible gives us a sobering warning about that: "Prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). And the Bible tells you how to do that.
But first you have to understand the verdict and the sentence we all face; church folks and unchurched folks, nice folks and nasty folks, rich and poor folks, folks from every religion. In God's own words, "we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). In other words, no one is good enough to measure up to God's holiness. No one's good enough to go to heaven. So the verdict is in - guilty; guilty of breaking the laws of God, guilty of defying God by running a life that He was supposed to run.
The penalty is in, too. God wastes no words. He leaves no loopholes when He announces it in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." Spiritually speaking, every one of us deserves to be on Death Row. The death the Bible talks about is not about your body. It's about your soul. It's about being separated from God throughout your life on earth and then horribly separated from Him forever, because He's a holy God and I'm anything but holy. You already know what living away from Him on earth is like; missing the love you were made for, a soul that's always restless and never satisfied, a life that may be full but not fulfilling, and an incurable emptiness deep down inside. But eternity without Him, well that's much, much worse. It is, in fact, hell.
But John 3, verses 16-18, our word for today from the Word of God, reveal the greatest news you could ever hear. "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Why? Because Jesus did all the dying for all the sinning you and I have ever done! The Bible says, then, that you and I are in one of two groups: "Whoever believes in Jesus," the Bible says, "is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in Him stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." There it is: condemned or pardoned, guilty or forgiven, heaven or hell. You choose by whether or not you pin all your hopes on Jesus as the only One who can save you, because He's the only One who died to spare you from God's death penalty.
If you've never given yourself to Him, I urge you to do that today with all my heart, please don't wait to accept God's pardon. Some people have waited too long. Every day you put this off, you risk going into eternity unforgiven and lost. Let this be the day you say, "Jesus, I believe You died for my sins. You walked out of your grave so You could give me eternal life. And beginning this very day, I'm putting my life in Your hands. I am Yours."
There's a lot more information about beginning this relationship and making sure you belong to Him at our website. It's YoursForLife.net. Or I'll send you my booklet called Yours For Life if you'll call for it toll free at 877-741-1200.
This can be the day that your hell is cancelled and your heaven is guaranteed.