Max Lucado Daily: Space For Us
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Space For Us
Posted: 13 Apr 2010 11:01 PM PDT
“There are many rooms in my Father’s house.” John 14:2
Jesus goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter . . .
Every so often, he is welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise: “In my Father’s house are many rooms.”
“I have ample space for you,” he says . . . We make room for him in our hearts, and he makes room for us in his house.
Zechariah 2
Third Vision: The Man with the Tape Measure
1-5 I looked up and was surprised to see
a man holding a tape measure in his hand.
I said, "What are you up to?"
"I'm on my way," he said, "to survey Jerusalem,
to measure its width and length."
Just then the Messenger-Angel on his way out
met another angel coming in and said,
"Run! Tell the Surveyor, 'Jerusalem will burst its walls—
bursting with people, bursting with animals.
And I'll be right there with her'—God's Decree—'a wall of fire
around unwalled Jerusalem and a radiant presence within.'"
6-7"Up on your feet! Get out of there—and now!" God says so.
"Return from your far exile.
I scattered you to the four winds." God's Decree.
"Escape from Babylon, Zion, and come home—now!"
8-9God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the One of Glory who sent me on my mission, commenting on the godless nations who stripped you and left you homeless, said, "Anyone who hits you, hits me—bloodies my nose, blackens my eye. Yes, and at the right time I'll give the signal and they'll be stripped and thrown out by their own servants." Then you'll know for sure that God-of-the-Angel-Armies sent me on this mission.
10"Shout and celebrate, Daughter of Zion!
I'm on my way. I'm moving into your neighborhood!"
God's Decree.
11-12Many godless nations will be linked up with God at that time. ("They will become my family! I'll live in their homes!") And then you'll know for sure that God-of-the-Angel-Armies sent me on this mission. God will reclaim his Judah inheritance in the Holy Land. He'll again make clear that Jerusalem is his choice.
13Quiet, everyone! Shh! Silence before God. Something's afoot in his holy house. He's on the move!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Romans 12:1-10 (The Message)
Romans 12
Place Your Life Before God
1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
3I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.
6-8If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.
9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
April 14, 2010
Unseen Workers
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READ: Romans 12:1-10
We have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. —Romans 12:4
As I was giving myself a manicure, I started feeling sorry for my right hand. It does the most work, but my left hand gets the most attention. My right hand applies nail polish smoothly to my left-hand nails, but my left hand, lacking skill and coordination, does not return the favor. The polish on my right hand is always smeared and messy. One hand does the better work, but the other hand gets all the attention and honor.
As I worked on my fingernails, my thoughts turned toward something much more important—the people in my church, many of whom are highly skilled at tasks that make others look good. These hardworking folks, however, seldom get noticed, because their work puts the attention on someone else. It seems unfair that those who do such good work get little appreciation.
Truly servant-minded believers, though, don’t see it that way. They give preference to others (Rom. 12:10) because they know that God sees what others do not—and that He will reward those whose work is unseen by others (Matt. 6:4,6,18; 1 Cor. 12:24).
Is someone else reaping the benefit of your hard work? Be encouraged. God rewards those who work “invisibly” to make Christ visible to the world. — Julie Ackerman Link
The service that we do for God
May go unpraised by men;
But when we stand before the Lord,
He will reward us then. —Sper
No service for Christ goes unnoticed by Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 14, 2010
Inner Invincibility
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me . . . —Matthew 11:29
Whom the Lord loves He chastens . . .” ( Hebrews 12:6 ). How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us to the point where we can have fellowship with Him, only to hear us moan and groan, saying, “Oh Lord, just let me be like other people!” Jesus is asking us to get beside Him and take one end of the yoke, so that we can pull together. That’s why Jesus says to us, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” ( Matthew 11:30 ). Are you closely identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God when you feel the pressure of His hand upon you.
“. . . to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29 ). God comes and takes us out of our emotionalism, and then our complaining turns into a hymn of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and to learn from Him.
“. . . the joy of the Lord is your strength” ( Nehemiah 8:10 ). Where do the saints get their joy? If we did not know some Christians well, we might think from just observing them that they have no burdens at all to bear. But we must lift the veil from our eyes. The fact that the peace, light, and joy of God is in them is proof that a burden is there as well. The burden that God places on us squeezes the grapes in our lives and produces the wine, but most of us see only the wine and not the burden. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God living within the human spirit; it creates an inner invincibility.
If your life is producing only a whine, instead of the wine, then ruthlessly kick it out. It is definitely a crime for a Christian to be weak in God’s strength.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Choice You Will Never Forget - #6068
A Word With You - Your Most Important Relationship
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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Junior high band concerts; oh, there's a test of a parent's love. I know. We got to support our kids by being at seven years of their junior high concerts. It's nice to see those young teenagers making a nice effort. It's not necessarily a memorable musical experience. Wouldn't it be interesting to, oh, let's say hear those young musicians trying to play a major Beethoven symphony? What if you've never heard any of his great compositions? All you've heard is that Beethoven was a musical genius. Then you hear the junior high band play a Beethoven symphony. And what do you have to say about Beethoven? "Did you say this guy was a genius? I just heard Beethoven! It was awful!" You didn't hear Beethoven. All you heard was some people doing a bad job playing his music.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Choice You Will Never Forget."
Beethoven was a genius. Don't judge Beethoven based on how some people play his music. For 2,000 years, Jesus has been judged by how well His followers have played His "music." And sometimes, they have butchered it! And even the best of His followers has lived the lifestyle of Jesus imperfectly. And that's given many people a reason not to follow Jesus themselves. You may be one of those.
You've seen the hypocrites; you've seen the confusing divisions between people disagreeing in Jesus' name. Maybe your exposure to certain kinds of Christianity has given you reason to believe that it's mostly about money. And throughout history, and even now, there have been so many mistakes made and so many wrongs committed in the name of Christ. Maybe you've been personally wounded by some people who called themselves Christians.
But none of that was Jesus. Jesus wasn't a hypocrite. Jesus didn't come to start a religion called Christianity, let alone all the denominations that have come from it. And the wrongs done in Jesus' name were horrific things that Jesus would have no part of and for which He will hold people accountable.
Which brings us to the most important decision you will ever make. It was articulated by an unlikely spokesman; by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who tried Jesus. It's recorded in Matthew 27:22 , our word for today from the Word of God. He asked the question that will determine your eternity and mine. "What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" Not what will I do with Christians. Not what will I do with Christianity. But what will I do with Christ? Jesus said to person after person, "Follow Me." He didn't say follow My followers or follow My leaders or follow My religion. He said, "Follow Me." It's all about Jesus.
And on Judgment Day, it will be all about Jesus and what you did with the Man who died in your place to pay for all the sins of your life. He didn't stay dead. Three days after He died, He walked out of His grave under His own power. So He's alive, and you will see Him at the end of your journey. The only thing that will matter at that moment will be what you did with Jesus. God won't care what you did with Christianity, but He'll base your whole eternity on what you did with Jesus.
If your trust is in anything other than Jesus, you're hanging onto a life preserver that simply will not save you. Only the Man who paid your spiritual death penalty can do that. Only the Man who has eternal life can give you eternal life. And that can only be the Man who conquered death Himself.
Maybe God brought us together today so you could have this opportunity to answer the most important question you'll ever answer, "What will I do with Jesus?" I hope, I pray that you will relinquish your control of your life and put your life in the hands of the Man who died for you. Because the Bible says, "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5:12 ). If you've got Jesus, you've got heaven. Without Jesus, there's no chance of heaven.
I'd be grateful to do what I can to help you answer God's life-or-death question about His Son today. At our website, I've provided a brief explanation of just how to reach out to Jesus and begin your relationship with Him. I invite you to visit us there today. It's YoursForLife.net.
One old hymn writer puts this decision about Jesus in pretty sobering terms. He simply said, "What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. For someday your soul will be asking, 'What will He do with me?'"