Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 4
God Gets Into Our Lives
I do not live anymore--it is Christ who lives in me.
Galatians 2:20 (NCV)
You have leaves to rake. A steering wheel to grip. A neighbor's hand to shake. Simply put, you have things to do.
So does God. Babies need hugs. Children need good-night tucks. AIDS orphans need homes. Stressed-out executives need hope. God has work to do. And he uses our hands to do it.
What the hand is to the glove, the Spirit is to the Christian....God gets into us. At times, imperceptibly. Other times, disruptively. God gets his fingers into our lives, inch by inch reclaiming the territory that is rightfully his.
Your tongue. He claims it for his message.
Your feet. He requisitions them for his purpose.
Your mind? He made it and intends to use it for his glory.
Your eyes, face, and hands? Through them he will weep, smile, and touch.
From: Come Thirsty
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 2004)
Max Lucado
Joshua 3
Crossing the Jordan
1 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards [e] between you and the ark; do not go near it."
5 Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."
6 Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people." So they took it up and went ahead of them.
7 And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: 'When you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river.' "
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD -the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap."
14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea [f] ) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Galatians 6:7-10 (New International Version)
7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature[a]will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
November 4, 2009
Seeds And Faith
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READ: Galatians 6:7-10
Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. —Galatians 6:7
I read a fable about a man who was browsing in a store when he made the shocking discovery that God was behind a sales counter. So the man walked over and asked, “What are You selling?” God replied, “What does your heart desire?” The man said, “I want happiness, peace of mind, and freedom from fear . . . for me and the whole world.” God smiled and said, “I don’t sell fruit here. Only seeds.”
In Galatians 6, Paul stressed the importance of sowing seeds of God-honoring behavior, for “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (v.7). We can’t expect to experience the fruit of God’s blessings if we don’t recognize the importance of doing our part.
It helps to follow the example of others who have sown good seed. Author Samuel Shoemaker said that a good example can either inspire us or cause us to say, “Oh yes, he (or she) is like that. He is not troubled by temper or nerves or impatience or worry as I am; he is just a happier temperament.” Shoemaker continued, “It may not occur to us that perhaps he had to fight for his serenity, and that we might win if we would do the same.”
Are you weary of the way you are? Ask God for His help and begin sowing seeds of new actions and responses today. In due season the Spirit will give the increase. — Joanie Yoder
We’re always sowing seeds in life
By everything we do and say,
So let’s make sure the fruit we reap
Comes from the good we do each day. —Hess
The seeds we sow today determine the kind of fruit we’ll reap tomorrow.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 4, 2009
The Authority of Truth
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READ:
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you —James 4:8
It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual— you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.
When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood— work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back. When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. "Come to Me . . ." ( Matthew 11:28 ). His word come means "to act." Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Unseen, Unbeatable Security - #5953
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Because of my strong connection to Native Americans, I was especially interested in a story author Leonard Sweet told in a book of his. It's about a rite of passage that one tribe had for its boys when they turned 13. On that birthday, a warrior blindfolded the boy and took him several miles from camp. The warrior then took off the blindfold and left this young teenager in this dark, dense forest. The young man was expected to stay there for the night and fend for himself. When it got dark, it got really dark. The trees were so dense he couldn't see the moon or the stars. Oh, but he could sure hear those eerie sounds of the wind, the howls of the wild animals nearby, and the rustling of the leaves that sounded like an approaching enemy. For most boys, it was a night without sleep. And then the dawn began to break. And the young man could then see the forest as it really was; the flowers blooming, the majestic trees swaying in the wind, and the wildlife scurrying around for food. And then, the biggest surprise of all. The boy would see an imposing male figure, standing in the woods only a few yards away. He'd be startled at first, until he recognized the man. Unbeknownst to this frightened young warrior, his father had been there the whole time, ready to protect his son against anything that might harm him.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unseen, Unbeatable Security."
A father who's there even when you're unaware of His presence and His protection; a father who can defend you against anything that comes against you. Now that is security. And in an increasingly dangerous and unpredictable world, security is hard to come by. With all the unsettling possibilities on the road ahead of you - medically, financially, relationally - even the end of your life whenever it comes. A strong protector who will never leave you is something worth hoping for; worth searching for.
There is such a Father. He created you, and His heart's desire for you is to have an intimate love relationship with Him. A love you can never lose. Listen to His promise to those who belong to Him in Isaiah 43, verses 1-3, "This is what the Lord says: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned...for I am the Lord, your God." If the Lord is your God, you have that ironclad security, from here, through every dark and lonely stretch of your life, and all way to eternity.
But without an act of God, we can't belong to Him. In the words of Ephesians 2:12, we are "without God and without hope in this world." We're without God because we've basically turned our back on Him so we could do with our life what we wanted to do, which means we're infected with sin - which God can't touch and heaven can't allow. But because of His great love for you, God launched a rescue mission on your behalf. He sent His Son, Jesus, as the Bible says, "to carry our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). And now He makes this promise, "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).
Isn't it time you surrendered the controls of your life and turned them over to the one who should have been in charge all along? Aren't you ready for some unloseable security - the kind that only a Heavenly Father can give you? One who gave His Son for you? Then tell Him that: "God, I've lived long enough without You in my heart. I'm putting all my trust in what Jesus did for me on the cross and I am giving me to You."
If that's what you want, then I want to encourage you with a place where a lot of people have found their roadmap to this personal relationship with God. It's our website. It's YoursForLife.net. I urge you to go there as soon as you can today.
No more fear of abandonment. No more fear of the unknown. No matter how dark, no matter how lonely, you will have a Father watching over you who has promised He'll never leave you. For all the days of your life, for all eternity, you'll be safe.