Max Lucado Daily: Jesus Changed Lives
Jesus Changed Lives
Posted: 08 Nov 2010 10:01 PM PST
I will live with them and walk with them. And I will be their God, and they will be my people. 2 Corinthians 6:16
Those who saw Jesus—really saw Him—knew there was something different. At His touch blind beggars saw. At His command crippled legs walked. At His embrace empty lives filled with vision.
He fed thousands with one basket. He stilled a storm with one command. He raised the dead with one proclamation.
He changed lives with one request.
Matthew 15
That Which Defiles
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’[a] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[c]”
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.[d] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Cor. 9:24-27
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)1Co 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
A Special Virtue
November 9, 2010 — by Dennis Fisher
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. —Galatians 5:22-23
In her book Food in Medieval Times, author Melitta Adamson writes of European culinary delights in the Middle Ages. Wild game, pastries, puddings, and other exotic foods illustrate the creative joy taken in food preparation. But with all these wonderful entrées there was a problem—overeating. This tendency was compounded by the Christian calendar, which abounded with fasts and feasts. Abstaining from meals was often followed by gluttony.
To address this problem, theologian Thomas Aquinas uplifted the Christian character quality of temperance, calling it “a special virtue.” He saw how self-restraint should extend to all areas of life.
For the believer, temperance, or moderation, does not derive from sheer human willpower. Instead, it comes from the Holy Spirit who gives us self-control: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). Self-control is the Spirit-produced quality that enables us to be “temperate in all things” (1 Cor. 9:25).
Overindulgence in food, rest, work, recreation, ministry, and a variety of “good things” can be corrected only through the balance of self-control. Take a few minutes to ask God to produce that special virtue in you.
If gaining the fruit of self-control
Is something you’re trying to do;
Submit your will in everything
To the Spirit living in you. —Kieda
To gain self-control, give the Spirit control.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 9th, 2010
Sacred Service
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . . —Colossians 1:24
The Christian worker has to be a sacred “go-between.” He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.
When we say, “What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!” then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Living a Much Bigger Life - #6217
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
My granddaughter obviously got her grace and coordination from me. She must have. Somebody's got mine, because I sure don't! She demonstrated some of that grace and coordination recently in a dance recital she was in with other four and five-year-olds. They actually had two little performances in one day. The first was in a little roped-off area in a small shopping mall. It was cute. That night, they did their real recital. Except this time it was on a big stage. You could tell the girls were excited and maybe a little intimidated when the curtain went up. And there was an audience of adoring fans: Moms and Dads, and Grandmas and Grandpas. I was thinking, "Well, I already saw this this morning. I'm here to support my granddaughter, though." Excuse me. They did the same numbers, but not the same way! They moved all over the stage like birds that had been let out of their cage. I realized that their morning performance had been on such a small stage that they could only do small things. But now they were showing what they really could do!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living a Much Bigger Life."
Those little girls showed that you can do so much more when you're on a much larger stage. And that may be what your heart is restless for right now. A life that does much more, and means much more than it has so far. Actually, it's God that plants that restlessness for more in your heart, because He wants to graduate you from the little, roped-in stage you may have been living on to the big stage that you were made for.
That big stage could be summed up in one word that's in Ecclesiastes 3:11 , our word for today from the Word of God. It says: "(God) has set eternity in the hearts of men." You've got this "eternity" thing in your heart, which can only be satisfied by things that will last forever. God didn't make you just as a creature of time. Your 70 years or so on earth is not the whole story - or even a fraction of the story. The Bible says God created you a living soul, made in His image. You are a creature of eternity! And those who live big lives are those who see their life here against the great backdrop of eternity.
You make your life-choices and you set your life-priorities much differently when you're not just considering this week or this month or this year, or even just this life. You're made for a much bigger stage, where you live for the things that will matter forever, not just for a little while. Where you look at your problems and your pain against the backdrop of eternity, not just a few years. For example, the early Christian leader, Paul, wrote about the grueling hardships that he'd endured as a representative of Christ. But he said, "We do not lose heart...for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ). When you're living on the big stage called eternity, earth-stuff just doesn't look as big anymore.
It may be that the reason that spiritual hole in your heart has never gone away is because all you've ever tried to fill it with is earth-stuff. You'll never have enough love until you have the only love that's everlasting. You'll never feel like your life really has meaning until you're part of something that's everlasting. You'll never be ready for eternity, whenever it comes, until you know for sure that you will have everlasting life in heaven. You can, if you pin all your hopes on Jesus Christ, who took the everlasting death we deserve for our sin. That's what He did on that cross. And today He's come close to you to give you a chance to choose Him; to begin living a life that will have eternal meaning, and to trade an awful eternity for a guaranteed eternity with Him.
If you're ready to graduate to the bigger stage you were created for - a personal love relationship with the God of the universe - you need to tell Jesus you're His from today on. That means turning over the wheel of your life to the One who gave you your life and who gave His life for you. A lot of people have been helped in getting started with Him by visiting our website and seeing the information there. I want to invite you to go there today. It's yoursforlife.net. Check it out.
You were made for so much more, and Jesus stands ready to take you there. Don't miss Him.