Max Lucado Daily: It’s Not Too Late
It’s Not Too Late
Posted: 03 Oct 2010 11:01 PM PDT
“Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” Luke 5:10, NASB
Christ . . . doesn’t abandon self-confessed schlemiels. Quite the contrary, he enlists them . . .
Contrary to what you may have been told, Jesus doesn’t limit his recruiting to the stout-hearted. The beat-up and worn-out are prime prospects in his book, and he’s been known to climb into boats, bars, and brothels to tell them, “It’s not too late to start over.”
Job 12
Job
1 Then Job replied:
2 "Doubtless you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you!
3 But I have a mind as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know all these things?
4 "I have become a laughingstock to my friends,
though I called upon God and he answered—
a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!
5 Men at ease have contempt for misfortune
as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
6 The tents of marauders are undisturbed,
and those who provoke God are secure—
those who carry their god in their hands. [c]
7 "But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish of the sea inform you.
9 Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the LORD has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.
11 Does not the ear test words
as the tongue tastes food?
12 Is not wisdom found among the aged?
Does not long life bring understanding?
13 "To God belong wisdom and power;
counsel and understanding are his.
14 What he tears down cannot be rebuilt;
the man he imprisons cannot be released.
15 If he holds back the waters, there is drought;
if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.
16 To him belong strength and victory;
both deceived and deceiver are his.
17 He leads counselors away stripped
and makes fools of judges.
18 He takes off the shackles put on by kings
and ties a loincloth [d] around their waist.
19 He leads priests away stripped
and overthrows men long established.
20 He silences the lips of trusted advisers
and takes away the discernment of elders.
21 He pours contempt on nobles
and disarms the mighty.
22 He reveals the deep things of darkness
and brings deep shadows into the light.
23 He makes nations great, and destroys them;
he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
24 He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason;
he sends them wandering through a trackless waste.
25 They grope in darkness with no light;
he makes them stagger like drunkards.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 11:25-30
25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
27 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Keeping Busy?
October 4, 2010 — by Julie Ackerman Link
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28
People who are trying to be friendly sometimes ask, “Are you keeping busy?” The question seems harmless, but in my mind it carries a subtle message. Beneath the surface is a test of personal value. If I can’t rattle off a list of things I have to do, I feel as if I’m admitting that I’m not worth much.
But does God determine our value by how busy we are? Does He calculate our worth by how much we accomplish? Does He reward us for living on the edge of exhaustion and not taking care of ourselves?
One of the first verses I learned as a child was Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It didn’t mean much to me at the time because I didn’t understand weariness. But now that I’m older, I feel the temptation to keep pace with the world so I won’t be left behind.
But followers of Jesus don’t have to live like that. Not only has He released us from slavery to sin but also from the bondage of having to prove our worth.
Accomplishing a lot for God may make us feel important, but what makes us important to God is what we allow Him to accomplish in us—conforming us into the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28-30).
Christ never asks of us such busy labor
As leaves no time for resting at His feet;
The waiting attitude of expectation
He often counts as service most complete. —Anon.
Our value is not measured by what we do for God but by what He has done in us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 4th, 2010
The Vision and The Reality
. . . to those who are . . . called to be saints . . . —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation–”I AM WHO I AM . . . has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Church Talk - #6191
Monday, October 4, 2010
He's been a phenomenon on the American scene for over 50 years - Dr. Billy Graham. Again and again, decade and decade, more than any other individual, he has appeared on the list of America's most respected men. In the twilight of his long ministry, his crusades took on a great sense of poignant significance. His crusade in Los Angeles near the end of 2004, attracted tens of thousands to the Rose Bowl, and many thousands to begin a personal relationship with the Savior that Billy Graham has proclaimed all these years. His message each night was translated instantaneously into 26 languages, including sign language. Interpreters fed their translation to groups of people sitting in their language groups, hearing the translation via headsets tuned to appropriate low-wave frequencies on their little radios. Billy Graham's Crusades have been translated since 1980, but they said never into so many languages as it was in Los Angeles. The translating coordinator explained that it was important that each person hear the message in his own "heart language."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Church Talk."
Billy Graham, and every missionary to a foreign culture, knows the message can't get through unless it's presented in a language the lost person can understand; no matter how important the message is. If a man ran into your church service next Sunday and shouted in Russian, "The building's on fire! Evacuate immediately!" Probably no one would move (unless you go to a Russian church). You might say, "That man is obviously sincere. He obviously has something important to tell us, but I have no idea what he's talking about." And you might sit there and ultimately die there. Not because he didn't transmit the life-saving information he had, but because he didn't translate it into words you could understand.
Now if the people you know who are without Christ speak English, and that's your language, too, you could assume that they'll understand what Jesus did for them if you just present it in English. Right? But the problem is that we church folks talk church talk - I call it "Christianese." Words only understood by people who've been around Christian things for a while. Well, a lot of them may not understand it either. Researcher George Barna tells us that hearing what Jesus did in the same predictable words week after week has effectively immunized a lot of church folks to their need of Christ. They know the words, so they must know the Lord. Right? Wrong - dead wrong.
In Matthew 13:23 , our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is explaining His parable about four soils that the seed of His message fell into, with each soil producing a different result. It was only the good soil that produced real, lasting fruit. Jesus said that all the seeds and the people they represent "heard the Word," and some even "received" it. But the fourth seed, the only one with lasting life, had one difference. He was "the man who hears the Word and understands it." When you share with someone the life-saving information you have about Jesus, are you translating it into everyday, non-religious words they can understand, or are you just transmitting the message in words that may keep them from understanding the most important news of all?
Ultimately, of course, it's God's Holy Spirit who enables us to understand what Jesus did. But that doesn't diminish our responsibility to present it, as Paul said, "clearly as I should" (Colossians 4:3 ). So many people have no idea what "sin" means, or "believe," "saved," "accept Christ," "receive Christ," "personal Savior," or "born again." We can't fail them by just speaking the words we're comfortable with, not if they obscure the very things they they have to understand about Jesus. We've got to ask God to help us get beyond our "Christianese" and to begin to explain the great words of God's rescue in non-religious words.
We've all got to be translators. Because it really is important - like life-or-death important - that each person hears the message that their eternity depends on in a language they can understand.