Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 13
God Energizes Our Efforts
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom,so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.
Colossians 1:28-29 (NIV)
Look at Paul's aim, to present everyone perfect in Christ. Paul dreamed of the day each person would be safe in Christ. What was his method? Counseling and teaching. Paul's tools? Verbs. Nouns. Sentences. Lessons. The same equipment you and I have....
Was it easier then than now? Don't think so. Paul called it work. To this end I labor, he wrote. Labor means work. Work means homes visited, people taught, classes prepared.
How did he do it? What was his source of strength? He worked with all the energy
he so powerfully works in me.
As Paul worked, so did God.... And as you work, so does the Father.
From: When God Whispers Your Name
Copyright (Word Publishing, 1994)
Max Lucado
Judges 4
Deborah
1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading [r] Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.' "
8 Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go."
9 "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, [s] the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, 10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, [t] and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. 15 At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come, my Lord , come right in. Don't be afraid." So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.
19 "I'm thirsty," he said. "Please give me some water." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
20 "Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' "
21 But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
22 Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple-dead.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Luke 4
The Temptation of Jesus
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'[a]"
5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours."
8Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'[b]"
9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'[c]"
12Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'[d]"
13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
November 13, 2009
No Deal!
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READ: Luke 4:1-13
It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” —Luke 4:4We’ve all seen and heard advertisements that entice us to take shortcuts to happiness. Buy our product and make no payments for one year! Instant gratification!
When the devil tempted Jesus (Luke 4:1-13), he offered a shortcut to “satisfaction.” He tried to tempt Jesus to take matters into His own hands rather than trust His Father.
When Jesus was hungry from 40 days of fasting (v.2), Satan suggested that He use His power to turn stones into bread. Had the Lord done so, He would have been using His powers for His own benefit, but He refused.
Why didn’t Jesus accept the devil’s offer of ruling all the kingdoms of the world right away? (vv.5-7). He could have avoided the cross. But that would have gone against God’s plan for Him—to give His life on the cross, to be resurrected, and to sit at the Father’s right hand in His kingdom. Satan’s offer of a shortcut was no deal at all.
Beware of enticements that seem to cost little for the present. Satan hopes to get you to do things his way. And he doesn’t give up easily. Even after Jesus overcame a third temptation, Satan left only “until an opportune time” (v.13).
Whenever you are offered a shortcut to happiness, watch out to see who’s behind the cashier’s counter! — C. P. Hia
Lord, help me see the devil’s offers for what they are—enticements to sin. Help me to keep my eyes focused on You and Your Word, and my ears attentive to You in prayer. Amen.
The best way to escape temptation is to run to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 13, 2009
Faith or Experience?
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READ:
. . . the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me —Galatians 2:20We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, "I haven’t had this experience or that experience"! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith "in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . ." ( 1 Corinthians 1:30 ). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a "prayer meeting" Jesus Christ, or a "book" Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Orphan No More - #5960
Friday, November 13, 2009
"China's Lost Girls" - that's what they called the National Geographic special that described China's "one child per family" law that has led to the abandonment of countless baby girls. But the special went on to describe the growing number of American families who want one of those little girls, who otherwise would spend her whole life in an orphanage. That came to life recently when some close friends started down that year-long process of bringing together an abandoned little girl with an American family. Finally, that long wait was over, and they were on a plane to China. When they got to their hotel room, there was an empty crib. It wasn't empty the next night. No, they were taken to the adoption center where this precious little girl they were adopting was placed in their arms, and that night she fell asleep in her new father's arms. As the family welcomed them at the airport back home, this girl, who only days before had belonged nowhere, was - and always would be - enveloped in love.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Orphan No More."
I couldn't help but see myself in what has happened with that little orphan. I had two loving parents, so I was blessed not to be an orphan physically. But I have been a spiritual orphan without the love that my soul was made for; without the love of the God the Bible calls our "Heavenly Father." We are, in the Bible's words, "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). But, again in God's words in His book, "Your iniquities (that's every wrong thing you've ever done) have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you" (Isaiah 59:2).
Because we're missing the Father we were created for, we really are spiritual orphans. And we've been feeling it all our lives, whether we know the reason or not. Maybe one of these words would describe some of your emotional autobiography: abandoned, rejected, excluded, betrayed, abused, lonely. Maybe a true sense of belonging has eluded you all these years even though you've done a lot of things in hopes that you would belong. We make a lot of mistakes for love. And no matter how close our family or friends may be, there's still that unexplainable loneliness deep down inside. It's cosmic loneliness. We're lonely for God. Maybe we're even pretty religious but we're still missing the only love relationship that can satisfy the heart of a spiritual orphan.
My friends went a long way to bring a little girl into their family. God went a long way to bring you into His - all the way from His heaven to hell on a cross. That's where God's Son absorbed all the guilt and all the punishment for every wrong thing you have ever done, so it would never have to keep you from your Heavenly Father again. So, in John 14:18, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus makes this awesome promise: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." And He has today - where you are right now.
Whatever you're in the middle of, Jesus has come to you today to bring you into His family. But He won't force His love on you. You need to choose it, which means recognizing that you really are in trouble with God because of your sin, and reaching out to Jesus as the only One who can rescue you from that trouble. Because He's the only One who died for your sin, and then He came back three days later to prove He can give you life that never ends.
This could be your day to finally belong to the very God who made you and who made you for a relationship with Him. It starts when you tell Jesus with all your heart, "I'm Yours." If you want that; if you'd like to get more information about beginning that relationship and being sure you belong to Him, I hope you'll go visit our website where so many other people have. I think you'll find some practical help there in being sure that you belong to Jesus. Now, that website is YoursForLife.net. I hope you'll check it out your very first opportunity today. I hope it will encourage you.
The Father's arms are open and they're waiting for you. He loves you. He wants you. Come to Him. You'll be an orphan no more.