Max Lucado Daily: Impossible
Impossible
Posted: 31 May 2010 11:01 PM PDT
“With God nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:37
In our world of budgets, long-range planning and computers, don’t we find it hard to trust in the unbelievable. Don’t most of us tend to scrutinize life behind furrowed brows and walk with cautious steps? It’s hard for us to imagine that God can surprise us. To make a little room for miracles today, well, it’s not sound thinking . . .
We forget that “impossible” is one of God’s favorite words.
Matthew 28
Risen from the Dead
1-4 After the Sabbath, as the first light of the new week dawned, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to keep vigil at the tomb. Suddenly the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God's angel came down from heaven, came right up to where they were standing. He rolled back the stone and then sat on it. Shafts of lightning blazed from him. His garments shimmered snow-white. The guards at the tomb were scared to death. They were so frightened, they couldn't move.
5-6The angel spoke to the women: "There is nothing to fear here. I know you're looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.
7"Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, 'He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.' That's the message."
8-10The women, deep in wonder and full of joy, lost no time in leaving the tomb. They ran to tell the disciples. Then Jesus met them, stopping them in their tracks. "Good morning!" he said. They fell to their knees, embraced his feet, and worshiped him. Jesus said, "You're holding on to me for dear life! Don't be frightened like that. Go tell my brothers that they are to go to Galilee, and that I'll meet them there."
11-15Meanwhile, the guards had scattered, but a few of them went into the city and told the high priests everything that had happened. They called a meeting of the religious leaders and came up with a plan: They took a large sum of money and gave it to the soldiers, bribing them to say, "His disciples came in the night and stole the body while we were sleeping." They assured them, "If the governor hears about your sleeping on duty, we will make sure you don't get blamed." The soldiers took the bribe and did as they were told. That story, cooked up in the Jewish High Council, is still going around.
16-17Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
18-20Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 8
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 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 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!
David’s Questions
June 1, 2010 — by Dave Branon
What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? —Psalm 8:4
An African proverb states, “The one who asks questions doesn’t lose his way.” That concept can be helpful as we consider David’s questions in the Psalms. He was clearly seeking God’s guidance for the way he should go.
Look, for example, at some of the questions he asked:
“O Lord—how long?” (6:3). A question of eagerness to see God’s plan accomplished.
“What is man that You are mindful of him?” (8:4). A question of awe that God even cares about sinful man.
“Why do You hide in times of trouble?” (10:1). A question that reveals a longing for God’s presence.
“Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?” (15:1). The ultimate question of who may live with God.
David had some tough questions for God. He had discovered what it was like to lose his way when he excluded God and followed his own sinful path. But as he penned the Psalms, he was a man in search of godliness, which meant he probed God’s mind about difficult subjects.
Questions. Like David, you have them. Keep asking. Then, through faith in God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit, listen as He leads you in His way.
My mind cries its questions,
My longing heart, joining:
O Father, please hear me!
O Spirit, keep teaching! —Verway
It’s good to have questions, but it’s even better to search for God’s answers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
June 1, 2010
The Staggering Question
He said to me, ’Son of man, can these bones live?’ —Ezekiel 37:3
Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer— “O Lord God, You know” ( Ezekiel 37:3 ). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, “Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done.”
It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God. We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do? The degree of hopelessness I have for others comes from never realizing that God has done anything for me. Is my own personal experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never have a sense of hopelessness for anyone else I see? Has any spiritual work been accomplished in me at all? The degree of panic activity in my life is equal to the degree of my lack of personal spiritual experience.
“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves . . .” ( Ezekiel 37:12 ). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” ( Romans 7:18 ). God’s Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Beautiful Truth About Life's Ugliest Words - #6102
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
I was there the day my son's dream died. Since he'd been little, playing big-time football had been his dream. If, as they say, biology is destiny, and him being my son, he was not destined to have a football player's size by any means. But he really worked at it, he spent hours in the gym, he was bulking up, he was practicing with focus and intensity. And honestly, he was very good at football - until the day he went down in a driving drill with a badly injured knee. He had torn his anterior cruciate ligament - an injury dreaded by anyone in sports. One of the top sports med doctors in our area examined our son's knee - and then he said those words that sounded like a death sentence to our boy, "You'll never play football again."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Beautiful Truth About Life's Ugliest Words."
Our son's dream died that day, but God's dream for him was born. He later said, "It was really my god that died that day" - the athletic death sentence from the doctor ultimately helped our son realize that football had become his god, and he surrendered his life totally to Christ. He replaced football with learning the guitar and writing songs. Those talents helped him form a unique Native American band to reach reservation young people, and his life was set on the track he was made for: to reach Native young people for Christ.
For our son, "You'll never play football" were some of the ugliest words he'd ever heard. Hey, there are a lot of ugly words in life: cancer, divorce, fired, unemployed, broke, rejected, guilty, bankrupt, incurable, and a lot of words that sound like a death sentence at the time. But there is an amazing truth that more than balances the other side of the scale and it is displayed in our word for today from the Word of God. In a nutshell, here's the hope-giving truth about life's ugly words - the ugly word is not the final word!
In Luke 7, beginning with verse 2, we meet a Roman centurion whose highly valued servant is "sick and about to die." The centurion sends messengers to Jesus, desperately pleading for His help. Part of his message went like this: "Say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." The Bible goes on to say, "When Jesus heard this, He was amazed at him and...He said, 'I have not found such great faith even in Israel.'" Jesus said this man had amazing faith. He often upbraided His disciples for their "little faith," but what was it about this soldier's faith that amazed Jesus and, by the way, brought about the miraculous healing of the servant he loved?
Well, amazing faith is all about authority and what authority will decide the outcome in your situation. Amazing faith believes that Jesus will decide the outcome and nothing else! The disease won't decide it, the boss won't decide it, the economy won't decide it, your enemies won't decide it, the odds won't decide it, the devil won't decide it - Jesus will decide it! If He says "'Go" to it, it's got to go! If He says, "Come," it's got to come! If He says, "Do this," it has to do it! Jesus, say the word!
Great faith can trigger miraculous outcomes, even when you're living one of life's ugliest words. And great faith - the kind that amazes Jesus - is faith that lives as if Jesus is going to decide this! Because, for a child of God, life's ugly words do not have the final word. Jesus does!
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