Max Lucado Daily: Spirit of Peace
Spirit of Peace
Posted: 09 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“Gideon built an altar . . . and named it The LORD Is Peace.” Judges 6:24
“Y-y-you b-b-better get somebody else,” we stammer. But then God reminds us that he knows we can’t, but he can, and to prove it he gives a wonderful gift. He brings a spirit of peace. A peace before the storm. A peace beyond logic . . . He gave it to David after he showed him Goliath; he gave it to Saul after he showed him the gospel; he gave it to Jesus after he showed him the cross.
Isaiah 53
1 Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?
2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.
7-9He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.
10Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
2 Peter 1:5-15 (The Message)
5-9So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.
10-11So, friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his choice of you. Don't put it off; do it now. Do this, and you'll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The One Light in a Dark Time
12-15Because the stakes are so high, even though you're up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I'm not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it. This is the post to which I've been assigned—keeping you alert with frequent reminders—and I'm sticking to it as long as I live. I know that I'm to die soon; the Master has made that quite clear to me. And so I am especially eager that you have all this down in black and white so that after I die, you'll have it for ready reference.
March 10, 2010
Reminders
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READ: 2 Peter 1:5-15
I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. —2 Peter 1:12
Jill Price has an extraordinary memory that has stunned scientists. In 2006, her overdeveloped memory was described in a scientific journal article, “A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering.” Price has no special aptitude for memorizing lists of words, numbers, facts, or languages. But she does remember what happened to her on any given day over the last 30 years. Name any date and Price will tell you what day of the week it was, the weather, what she had for breakfast, the TV programs she watched, and the people she spoke with.
Few of us have a memory like that. That’s why we need reminders to complete simple tasks and keep our appointments. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual truth. The apostle Peter showed he understood the need of spiritual reminders when he wrote: “I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things . . . . Yes, I think it is right . . . to stir you up by reminding you . . . . Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things” (2 Peter 1:12-15).
No matter what kind of memory we have, we need to be reminded of biblical principles. Daily Bible reading, small group studies, and involvement in a local church can all help us to remember God’s vital truths. — Dennis Fisher
Remembering the Word of God
Does not come naturally;
We need reminders to fulfill
What God wants us to be. —Sper
Let God’s Word fill your memory, rule your heart, and guide your steps.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 10, 2010
Being an Example of His Message
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READ:
Preach the word! —2 Timothy 4:2
We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters. He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us. The Son of God was His own message— "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" ( John 6:63 ). As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message. Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose to make a person’s life a holy example of God’s message.
There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God’s truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples’ lives after Pentecost. The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God’s message in the flesh. ". . . you shall be witnesses to Me . . ." ( Acts 1:8 ).
Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to "set your words on fire" for His glory.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Most Important Question About the Road You're On - #6043
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Every time I go to an airport, there are a lot of planes to choose from. Sometimes I walk past dozens of gates and planes to get to one plane at a faraway gate. Sometimes I get on this little "puddle jumper" plane when I'd, of course, rather be onboard a big, sleek aircraft. I don't get on the first plane I see, or the one that's the most convenient to get to, or the one that looks the most comfortable, or the one that looks best to me. No, I pick which plane I'll board based on one simple factor - its destination.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Question About the Road You're On."
There are lots of planes at that airport that will give you a nice ride, but they won't get you home. The question that decides which plane to board is pretty straightforward: "Will this take me where I want to end up?"
Nowhere is more riding on that question than when it comes to where we will spend eternity; especially at a time when our culture offers a confusing spiritual buffet to choose from. Many religions are seeking our allegiance in this growing marketplace of spiritual options. And there are countless alternatives to conventional approaches to God; approaches that allow you to develop your own personalized spirituality. Whether your way to God is a traditional religion or a non-traditional spirituality, it's important to ask the only question that really matters: "Will this take me where I want to end up?" Not "Do I like the way this makes me feel?" or "Shouldn't I follow the religion I was raised in?" There are some beautiful roads that don't lead to heaven. There are some spiritual systems that will, like that wrong aircraft, give you a lift but won't get you home.
God's made it very clear in His best-selling book, the Bible, that there's one way to end up in His heaven when you die, and it is not a religion. It's a Person. In 1 Timothy 2:3-5, our word for today from the Word of God, He says: "God our Savior...wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." Why just one man who can be the go-between to get us to God? Because there's only one man who "gave Himself as a ransom for all men."
A ransom is the price you pay to get someone back. The price to get us back was the death of Jesus Christ for the sin that separates us from God. A religion, a personal spirituality can make us feel spiritual, even close to God, but it cannot pay the death penalty that we carry because we've de-throned God in our lives to run it ourselves. It took what Jesus did on the cross to do that. Only the man who died for your sin can remove your sin. If you die with your sin unforgiven, there's no way God can let you into His heaven. Even Christianity, the religion that's about Jesus, can't get you to heaven. It's Jesus! In the powerful words of Acts 4:12, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
The only way to get to heaven is to be totally depending on Jesus Christ to get you there. It means abandoning all other hopes of getting to God and to heaven and fully trusting the one way God provided - Jesus, His one and only Son. If you've never reached out to Him and given yourself to Him, you're in grave spiritual danger, no matter how sincere you may be in whatever else you're depending on. You can be totally sincere in your belief that a certain plane will get you where you want to go, but no amount of sincerity can change the fact that it just won't get you home.
When you open your heart and your life to Jesus, you know in your soul that this is finally the real thing because Jesus is there now. I pray that you will tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." At our website, there's a brief explanation of just how to begin your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You can listen to it or you can read it. Just go to YoursForLife.net.
Jesus paid your passage to heaven with His life. That's how much He loves you. Go with Him today, because He is the One who can get you home.