Max Lucado Daily: Get Your Eye Off Yourself
Get Your Eye Off Yourself
Posted: 03 Jul 2010 11:01 PM PDT
“Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Philippians 2:4, NASB
What’s the cure for selfishness?
Get your self out of your eye by getting your eye off yourself. Quit staring at that little self and focus on your great Savior . . .
Focus on the encouragement in Christ, the consolation of Christ, the love of Christ, the fellowship of the Spirit, the affection and compassion of heaven.
Max Lucado Daily: An Imperfect Family
An Imperfect Family
Posted: 04 Jul 2010 11:01 PM PDT
“Jesus had to be made like his brothers . . . so he could be their merciful and faithful high priest.” Hebrews 2:17
Jesus displays the bad apples of his family tree in the first chapter of the New Testament . . . Rahab was a Jericho harlot . . . David had a personality as irregular as a Picasso painting—one day writing Psalms, another day seducing his captain’s wife. But did Jesus erase his name from the list? Not at all . . .
If your family tree has bruised fruit, then Jesus wants you to know, “I’ve been there.”
1 Corinthians 13
The Way of Love
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 14:13-23
13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.
14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."
16 Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."
17 "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered.
18 "Bring them here to me," he said.
19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.
23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
Retreating Forward
July 5, 2010 — by Bill Crowder
When He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. —Matthew 14:23
A friend told me about his church’s leadership retreat. For 2 days, church leaders pulled away for a time of prayer, planning, and worship. My friend was not only refreshed but also energized. He told me, “This retreat is really going to help us move forward as a church ministry.”
It sounded funny to me—this notion of retreating in order to move forward. But it is true. Sometimes you have to pull back and regroup before you can make meaningful forward progress. This is particularly true in our relationship with God.
Jesus Himself practiced “retreating forward.” After a busy day of ministry in the region of the Sea of Galilee, He retreated. Matthew 14:23 tells us that “when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.” Alone in the presence of the Father.
In this fast-paced, get-ahead world, it’s easy to wear ourselves down—pressing ahead and moving forward at all costs. But even in our desire to be effective Christians, we must consistently be willing to retreat into God’s presence. Only in the refreshing of His strength can we find the resources to move forward in our service for Him. Retreat in Jesus before moving forward.
To face life’s many challenges
And overcome each test,
The Lord tells us to take the time
To stop. To pray. To rest. —Sper
Alone with the Father is the only place to find the strength to press on.
Read: Galatians 4:21–5:1
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23 His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27 For it is written:
"Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
30 But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."
31 Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
True Freedom
July 4, 2010 — by Richard De Haan
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. —Galatians 5:1
In 1776, the 13 British colonies in North America protested the limitations placed on them by the king of England and engaged in a struggle that gave birth to a brand-new republic. The infant nation soon adopted that now-famous document known as the Declaration of Independence.
Almost 2,000 years ago, the Lord Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished,” proclaiming the believer’s “declaration of independence.” All of humanity was under the tyranny of sin and death. But Christ, the sinless One, took our place on Calvary and died for our sins. Having satisfied God’s righteous demands, He now sets free for eternity all who trust in Him.
Paul wrote, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). Romans 8 assures us, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . . . For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (vv.1-2). Galatians 5:1 urges all who have been redeemed to “stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.”
We are thankful to God for any freedom we enjoy in a nation. But above all, believers everywhere can praise Him for the freedom that is found in Christ!
Now are we free—there’s no condemnation!
Jesus provides a perfect salvation;
“Come unto Me,” O hear His sweet call!
Come—and He saves us once for all. —Bliss
Our greatest freedom is freedom from sin.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
July 4th and 5th , 2010
Don’t Plan Without God
Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass —Psalm 37:5
Don’t plan without God. God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the plans we have made, when we have not taken Him into account. We get ourselves into circumstances that were not chosen by God, and suddenly we realize that we have been making our plans without Him— that we have not even considered Him to be a vital, living factor in the planning of our lives. And yet the only thing that will keep us from even the possibility of worrying is to bring God in as the greatest factor in all of our planning.
In spiritual issues it is customary for us to put God first, but we tend to think that it is inappropriate and unnecessary to put Him first in the practical, everyday issues of our lives. If we have the idea that we have to put on our “spiritual face” before we can come near to God, then we will never come near to Him. We must come as we are.
Don’t plan with a concern for evil in mind. Does God really mean for us to plan without taking the evil around us into account? “Love . . . thinks no evil” ( 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 ). Love is not ignorant of the existence of evil, but it does not take it into account as a factor in planning. When we were apart from God, we did take evil into account, doing all of our planning with it in mind, and we tried to reason out all of our work from its standpoint.
Don’t plan with a rainy day in mind. You cannot hoard things for a rainy day if you are truly trusting Christ. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:1 ). God will not keep your heart from being troubled. It is a command— “Let not. . . .” To do it, continually pick yourself up, even if you fall a hundred and one times a day, until you get into the habit of putting God first and planning with Him in mind.
One of God’s Great "Don’ts"
Do not fret— it only causes harm —Psalm 37:8
Fretting means getting ourselves “out of joint” mentally or spiritually. It is one thing to say, “Do not fret,” but something very different to have such a nature that you find yourself unable to fret. It’s easy to say, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” ( Psalm 37:7 ) until our own little world is turned upside down and we are forced to live in confusion and agony like so many other people. Is it possible to “rest in the Lord” then? If this “Do not” doesn’t work there, then it will not work anywhere. This “Do not” must work during our days of difficulty and uncertainty, as well as our peaceful days, or it will never work. And if it will not work in your particular case, it will not work for anyone else. Resting in the Lord is not dependent on your external circumstances at all, but on your relationship with God Himself.
Worrying always results in sin. We tend to think that a little anxiety and worry are simply an indication of how wise we really are, yet it is actually a much better indication of just how wicked we are. Fretting rises from our determination to have our own way. Our Lord never worried and was never anxious, because His purpose was never to accomplish His own plans but to fulfill God’s plans. Fretting is wickedness for a child of God.
Have you been propping up that foolish soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for God to handle? Set all your opinions and speculations aside and “abide under the shadow of the Almighty” ( Psalm 91:1 ). Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about whatever concerns you. All our fretting and worrying is caused by planning without God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Deadly Deafness - #6126
Monday, July 5, 2010
Jim was spending his first night as a college student. As he began to fall asleep in his dorm room, he was suddenly awakened by a frightening sound. A train whistle blew, and the train was coming right through his room. Well, at least that's how it sounded to this particular college student. It turned out that the railroad tracks were right next to his dorm. That's probably why they put lowly freshmen there, right? Well, Jim found it pretty challenging to slip into la-la land for the night when it sounded like a train was roaring through his room. I said, "But I'll bet you eventually got used to it, didn't you?" He told me, "Well, after a while, I didn't even notice the train anymore!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Deadly Deafness."
Amazing, isn't it? What used to seem so loud to you becomes something you can eventually ignore totally. That's good if it's the sound of the train roaring by your room at night. It's bad if it's the voice of God you don't hear anymore. And the more you've been around the Word of God, the greater the danger that you may be developing the most deadly form of deafness in the world - deafness to the God that you cannot afford to miss.
Our word for today from the Word of God is a sobering warning about this deadly deafness. Hebrews 3:7 says, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Every time you hear about what Jesus did for you on the cross and you do nothing about it, your heart gets a little harder. We wouldn't know that if God didn't tell us that in the Bible. This hardening of your heart is gradual - almost imperceptible - but very, very real and very dangerous. Proverbs 29:1 tells us that the one who continually ignores many warnings from God "...will suddenly be destroyed - without remedy."
The Bible gives us a disturbing example of this danger in the story of Pharaoh. Moses continued to deliver a message from God to Egypt's king and he continued to disregard it. The Book of Exodus tells us that "Pharaoh hardened his heart" (Exodus 8:14, 32). After all the times Pharaoh heard and rejected God's message, the Bible tells us that "...the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart" (Exodus 9:12). He reached the point where he could not respond to God because of all the times he would not respond to God. Ultimately, Moses says, speaking on God's behalf, "I will never appear before you again" (Exodus 10:29).
Right now I'm talking to someone who has heard about Jesus many times. You've heard what He did on the cross for you. You've heard it was to pay for the sins that have cut you off from God. You've heard that He's alive. You've heard that He's inviting you to put your trust in Him. And you agree with Jesus. You like Jesus, but you've never given yourself to Jesus. Without knowing it, without meaning to, you've been hardening your heart. You're so familiar with Jesus that you're becoming immune to Jesus.
If you sense any stirring in your heart toward Him right now, there's still time. You can still believe, because God has come to draw you to His Son at least one more time; at least this time. When will it be too late to choose Jesus? Only God knows. What we do know is that today is your only guaranteed opportunity to make Jesus your own Savior from your own sin; to change your eternal destination from hell to heaven.
It starts when you tell Jesus, "I'm Yours, Lord. I have no other hope but You and what You did on the cross for me." I would love to help you make sure that you belong to Him. We've actually set up our website to do just that. I encourage you to visit us there today if you can. Just go to YoursForLife.net. Or, if you'd rather get my little booklet about getting started with Jesus, it's called Yours For Life, and you can just call and ask for it toll free at 877-741-1200.
Remember what God says. Today if you hear His voice, grab Him while you still can. There is so much to gain when you do grab Jesus, and there's so much to lose if you don't.