Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 27
The True Son of God
“Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”
Matthew 14:33 (NIV)
They [the disciples] had never, as a group, done that before. Never. Check it out. Open your Bible. Search for a time when the disciples corporately praised him.
You won't find it.
You won't find them worshiping when he heals the leper. Forgives the adulteress. Preaches to the masses. They were willing to follow. Willing to leave family. Willing to cast out demons. Willing to be in the army.
But only after the incident on the lake did they worship him. Why?
Simple. This time it was one of them who cried out and was saved.
From: In the Eye of the Storm
Copyright (Word Publishing, 1991)
Max Lucado
1 Samuel 15
The LORD Rejects Saul as King
1 Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy [a] everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.' "
4 So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. 5 Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 6 Then he said to the Kenites, "Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves [b] and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.
12 Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."
13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD's instructions."
14 But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?"
15 Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."
16 "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night."
"Tell me," Saul replied.
17 Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' 19 Why did you not obey the LORD ? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD ?"
20 "But I did obey the LORD," Saul said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal."
22 But Samuel replied:
"Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king."
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I violated the LORD's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them. 25 Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD."
26 But Samuel said to him, "I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!"
27 As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. 29 He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind."
30 Saul replied, "I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God." 31 So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD.
32 Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites."
Agag came to him confidently, [c] thinking, "Surely the bitterness of death is past."
33 But Samuel said,
"As your sword has made women childless,
so will your mother be childless among women."
And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD at Gilgal.
34 Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. 35 Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the LORD was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Ephesians 3:14-21 (New International Version)
A Prayer for the Ephesians
14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
November 27, 2009
Loved Well
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READ: Ephesians 3:14-21
That you . . . may be able to comprehend . . . what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ. —Ephesians 3:17-19
We were gathered with family for Thanksgiving dinner when someone asked if each person would share what he or she was thankful for. One by one we talked. Three-year-old Joshua was thankful for “music,” and Nathan, aged 4, for “horses.” We were all silenced, though, when Stephen (who was soon to turn 5) answered, “I’m thankful that Jesus loves me so well.” In his simple faith, he understood and was grateful for the love of Jesus for him personally. He told us that Jesus showed His love by dying on a cross.
The apostle Paul wanted the believers in the church at Ephesus to understand how well God loved them, and that was his prayer: “That [they would] be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ” (Eph. 3:17-19). He prayed that they would be rooted and grounded in that love.
To ground ourselves in God’s love, it would be helpful to review these verses frequently or even memorize them. We can also take a few minutes each day to thank the Lord for the specific ways He shows His love to us. This will help us to grow in our belief and be thankful—as Stephen is—that Jesus loves us “so well.” — Anne Cetas
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song. —Lehman
To renew your love for Christ, review Christ’s love for you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 27, 2009
The Consecration of Spiritual Power
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READ:
. . . by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world —Galatians 6:14
If I dwell on the Cross of Christ, I do not simply become inwardly devout and solely interested in my own holiness— I become strongly focused on Jesus Christ’s interests. Our Lord was not a recluse nor a fanatical holy man practicing self-denial. He did not physically cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. In fact, He was so much in the common everyday world that the religious people of His day accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard. Yet our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual power.
It is not genuine consecration to think that we can refuse to be used of God now in order to store up our spiritual power for later use. That is a hopeless mistake. The Spirit of God has set a great many people free from their sin, yet they are experiencing no fullness in their lives— no true sense of freedom. The kind of religious life we see around the world today is entirely different from the vigorous holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one" ( John 17:15 ). We are to be in the world but not of it— to be separated internally, not externally (seeJohn 17:16 ).
We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a deliberate determination to be interested only in what God is interested. The way to make that determination, when faced with a perplexing problem, is to ask yourself, "Is this the kind of thing in which Jesus Christ is interested, or is it something in which the spirit that is diametrically opposed to Jesus is interested?"
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When There's Nothing Left to Hold - #5970
Friday, November 27, 2009
It was a stark picture of what's happening on Indian reservations across this country. It was the funeral of another Native American young person. There are so many of them - way too many of them. Their number one cause of death is accidental death, often attributable to alcohol or drugs, followed by suicide, and then homicide. Seventy-five percent of Native young people die a violent death, and James was one of those. Our On Eagles' Wings team of Native young people had brought the hope that they have found in Jesus Christ to his reservation. Later, James and his brother traveled with our team to other reservations. But one deadly night, James became one of those awful statistics. We were honored to be invited by his family to the wake, the funeral and the burial in a small tribal cemetery. The men there stepped up to the open grave and they threw a handful of dirt on James' casket. Then most of the folks there left, except for his family and a few close friends. There wa s a large, homemade wooden cross at the head of the grave. I'll never forget the scene of James' brother, visibly shattered by shock and grief, just resting all his weight on that cross, hanging onto it for dear life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When There's Nothing Left to Hold."
For a grieving brother, for so many of us in moments when we have lost what we never thought we could never live without, there's one thing to hold onto that has supported broken people for 2,000 years. It is that cross where God's Son died a shameful public death, bearing the grief and the payment for every sinful thing ever done on this planet.
Several years ago, I toured the Catacombs beneath the Appian Way in Rome - the underground caverns where thousands of early Christians are buried in the sandstone walls; people who died rather than renounce this Savior who had died for them. In those sandstone walls, those brave first followers of Jesus inscribed some of the earliest Christian symbols including what we now know as the anchor cross. It's a cross that has a loop at the bottom, thus making it resemble an anchor. How appropriate for those back then who didn't know if they would live another day, and who had buried so many they loved. That cross was their anchor, as it was for a grieving young Native American by his brother's reservation grave, 20 centuries later.
It's an anchor because of the victory that was won that dark day on Skull Hill. In Hebrews 2:9 and 18, our word for today from the Word of God, we learn that Jesus "suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." Translation: Jesus took your hell so you could go to His heaven. He did this, the Bible says, "so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Later, this same book says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."
The question is, do you have this anchor for your soul? Yes, if you've grabbed the One who died on that cross as your only hope of having your sins forgiven. If you've never done that, you're missing the one love you'll never lose; the One who can guarantee that you will see again whoever belongs to Him; the only One who can heal your broken heart. There has to be that "for me" moment when you look at that cross and say with all your heart, "Jesus, what You did there was for me. And I'm turning from the sin You died for and I'm placing my total trust in You."
If that's what you want, tell Him that today. And then, please go to our website, and you'll find there what many others have found. The best I can explain there in non-religious language how to be sure you've begun your relationship with Him. I think it will encourage you. It's YoursForLife.net. I hope you'll go there at your first chance today.
It's a fact of life. We will ultimately lose whatever, or whoever, we've been hanging onto except for the love of Jesus Christ, poured out on that cross. It's not just a cross. It's the only anchor that will be there when there's nothing left to hold onto.