Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
December 22
Down on Your Knees
God is against the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
James 4:6
A small cathedral outside Bethlehem marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus. Behind a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps.
You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave where a star embedded in the floor recognizes the birth of the King. There is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop. The door is so low you can't go in standing up.
The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you have to get [down] on your knees.
From: The Applause of Heaven
Copyright (Word Publishing, 1990)
Max Lucado
Psalm 8
For the director of music. According to gittith [a].
A psalm of David.
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise [b]
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Isaiah 40:25-27 (New International Version)
25 "To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?
December 22, 2009
The Star Shepherd
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READ: Isaiah 40:25-27
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things. —Isaiah 40:26
Some night when you’re away from city lights, “lift up your eyes on high” (Isa. 40:26). There in the heavens you’ll see a luminous band of stars stretching from horizon to horizon—our galaxy.
If you have good eyes, you can see about 5,000 stars, according to astronomer Simon Driver. There are, however, far more that you cannot see with the naked eye. In 1995, the Hubble Deep Field Study space probe concluded that there are billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars. By one estimate, there are more than 10 stars in the universe for every grain of sand on the earth.
Yet each night, without fail, God “brings out their host by number; . . . by the greatness of His might . . . ; not one is missing” (v.26).
Why then do people say, “My way is hidden from the Lord”? (v.27). Yes, billions of individuals inhabit this globe, but no one has been forgotten by God. He knows “those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19). If He can bring out the incalculable hosts of heaven each night one by one, He can bring you into His light. He does so by “the strength of His power” (v.26)—the power He showed when He raised Jesus from the dead.
Are the stars out tonight? Rejoice! God cares for you. — David H. Roper
The God who made the firmament,
Who made the deepest sea,
The God who put the stars in place
Is the God who cares for me. —Berg
We see the power of God’s creation; we feel the power of His love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 22, 2009
The Drawing of the Father
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READ:
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him . . . —John 6:44
When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16 ). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.
In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God.
Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Getting Rid of the Guilt of a Lifetime - #5987
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
If you've ever tried to find a parking space at the mall a few days before Christmas, you've probably eyed some of those handicapped parking places with a little envy. They're right up close, and there's usually one available. Maybe you've even been tempted to park in one of those spots, even though you're not handicapped and you don't have one of those tags to hang on your mirror. Don't try it. No, just ask Connie. Because of some serious health issues, her doctor has given her one of those tags. So Connie can use those spaces legally, if she displays her tag - which she unfortunately forgot to do during a two-night stay at a hotel. She returned to her car only to find two tickets with a fine of $250.00 each and a demand that she appear in court, no matter how she pleaded. And Connie lives a thousand miles from the town where she got the ticket!
Well, she filled out a court affidavit and pleaded guilty to what the clerk described as a "not minor violation." The affidavit was mailed to the municipal judge along with a photocopy of Connie's handicapped tag. Just yesterday she received the judge's response regarding her scheduled court appearance. The note simply said, "Upon review, the judge has declared you not guilty." Suddenly, her heavy load was gone!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting Rid of the Guilt of a Lifetime."
Connie was guilty as charged, by her own confession. She had a high price to pay. But to her amazement, the judge declared the guilty offender not guilty. I know a little bit about that kind of good news. It was that kind of transaction that literally changed my life and changed my eternal address. It could happen to you.
There's a lot of creative thinking today about what God is like and where we stand with Him. But the only one who can tell us the truth about that is God Himself, of course, and He has in His book - the Bible. Listen to what God says in Romans 3, beginning with verse 23. It's our word for today from the Word of God. I'm reading from the New Living Translation. It starts with some very bad news. "Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard."
There's no way to God without pleading "guilty as charged." Guilty of violating the holy law of God every time we covet what someone else has, every time we tell something less than the truth, every time we think or act immorally, every time we let someone or something be more important to us than God is. Every one of us is a rebel against Almighty God. The more religious you are, the harder it is for you to plead guilty to running your own life, to being the sinner God says you are. Until you agree with God about your guilt, there's no hope. And sin carries a heavy penalty - eternal separation from a holy God. The Bible has a name for that - that's hell.
But here comes the amazing good news. "Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood." There it is! The Judge's declaration you are not guilty - even though you are - because He offered His only Son to lay down His life to pay for what you've done, so you could be free from the guilt of every wrong thing you've ever done and have the hell you deserve cancelled for the heaven you could never deserve.
But you have to tell your Judge that you're depending completely on His Son's death for you as your only hope. And at that moment, the One who would have been your Judge becomes your Savior. It can happen today, if you'll reach out to Jesus and give yourself to Him, because He gave Himself for you.
Just tell Him where you are, "Jesus, beginning today I'm not running things. I'm Yours." And I would really urge you to check out our website at your first chance today. I've tried to put there the information that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus Christ. That website is YoursForLife.net. I hope you'll go there right away today.
This can be the day that you're declared not guilty by the God of the universe, and the load will be gone. You'll be free.