Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 24
What Worship Does
You who fear the LORD, praise Him!
Psalm 22:23 (NKJV)
Worship humbles the smug and lifts the deflated.
Worship adjusts us, lowering the chin of the haughty, straightening the back of the burdened.
Worship properly positions the worshiper. And oh how we need it! We walk through life so bent out of shape. Five-talent folks swaggering: “I bet God’s glad to have me.” Two-talent folks struggling: “I bet God’s sick of putting up with me.” So sold on ourselves that we think someone died and made us ruler. Or so down on ourselves that we think everyone died and just left us.
Treat both conditions with worship.
Job 1
Prologue
1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
4 His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom.
Job's First Test
6 One day the angels [a] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan [b] also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
9 "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. 10 "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."
12 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
13 One day when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"
17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, "Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart. [c]
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised."
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Matthew 6:24-34 (New International Version)
24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Do Not Worry
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[a]?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
September 24, 2009
Contentment
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READ: Matthew 6:24-34
No one can serve two masters. —Matthew 6:24
A gripping photograph of an old woman sitting in a pile of garbage made me ponder. She was smiling as she ate a packet of food she had foraged from the garbage dump. It took so little for the woman to be satisfied.
There is much talk about a struggling economy and the cost of living going higher. And many are getting increasingly anxious about their livelihood. Is it possible to heed our Lord Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:25, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on”?
Our Lord was not saying that we don’t need to work, that we don’t need to eat, or that we shouldn’t bother about how we dress. He was warning against those things becoming so important that we become slaves of money instead of trusting Him. “No one can serve two masters,” He said (v.24).
Seeking first “the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (v.33) is recognizing that no matter how much effort we expend to make a better life for ourselves and our families, ultimately it is the Lord who takes care of our needs. And since God is our heavenly Father, we will have enough. — C. P. Hia
Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there. —Havergal
Money serves us well if we receive it as God’s provision.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 24, 2009
The "Go" of Preparation
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READ:
If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift—Matthew 5:23-24
It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present level of experience. The Christian life requires preparation and more preparation.
The sense of sacrifice in the Christian life is readily appealing to a new Christian. From a human standpoint, the one thing that attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and a close examination of us by our Lord’s words suddenly puts this tide of enthusiasm to the test. ". . . go your way. First be reconciled to your brother. . . ." The "go" of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely. Your sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature that can never work in His service. And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it— confess it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?
Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go. But behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, "I will not give up my right to myself"— the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Dark Side - #5924
Thursday, September 24, 2009
I went out the other night and I saw this beautiful moon rising in the eastern sky. I ran inside and said, "Honey, you need to come outside. The moon is shining so brightly tonight." Actually, to be more accurate, I should say, "Half the moon is shining brightly tonight." Because there's one side of the moon that enjoys the sun's rays and reflects them back to earth, and there's another side that the sun doesn't touch. Of course, that's the dark side of the moon.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Dark Side."
Where the light doesn't shine, now that's the dark side. The sad thing is that many of us have a dark side; parts of our life, our personality, our lifestyle where we don't let the light shine - the light of the S-o-n of God. And those parts, like the moon, are cold and barren; possibly hidden from everyone's view. Everyone, that is, except God.
It's an issue we might call selective Lordship, which is an oxymoron. If I get to decide which parts of my life I'm going to let Jesus have His way in, how can I call Him Lord? The Greek word for Lord, kurios, is all about who is the controller. If I'm deciding there are certain parts of me Jesus can't have, then who's in control here? I am hijacking my life from my Sovereign Lord and I'm effectively making me, His creation, the "lord" of my life.
Jesus asked a haunting question about all this in Luke 6:46. It's our word for today from the Word of God. He said, "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" If you got to your room tonight and found Jesus there, He might very well ask you that question. If He did, what areas of your life do you think He'd have in mind when He said, "You're not doing what I say"?
Could it be that you're not letting His light shine on that bitterness that you're harboring? Or maybe that anger of yours is stubbornly defiant to Christ's control. Maybe the "dark side" of your "moon" is a sinful habit that you won't let Jesus get you out of, or the lust that continues to poison your heart with images and fantasies that thumb their nose at God's holiness. Pride is the sin that cost Lucifer heaven, but it's one that the Christian world will largely let you get by with un-condemned. But God hates it. Pride of position, pride of accomplishment, pride of appearance, pride of ability; they're all deep darkness that desperately need the light of Jesus to shine on them.
Maybe your impatience is a part of you that you just won't let Jesus challenge, or your spiritual coldness, or your neglect of people who are depending on you. It could be that you're manipulative and you're a controller. Maybe there's a relationship you won't let him touch - the dark side - dark because you will not let His light shine there. You will not let King Jesus shine His light on it and show you how ugly it is, how dirty it really is so that you will repent of it and release it to Him so He can perform that life-transforming miracle within you that only He can do.
The parts of you where you have really let Jesus shine, well think about it for a minute. Aren't they the brightest parts of you? Aren't they the most beautiful things about you - the things that now light up other people's galaxy? And the dark side has been dark, and cold, and barren long enough. Today let the light in!