Max Lucado Daily: A Better Law
A Better Law
Posted: 23 Nov 2010 10:01 PM PST
Christ brings a new agreement from God to his people. Hebrews 9:15
There was nothing inferior about the Jewish religion. It was given by God and designed by God. Every principle, rule, and ritual had a wealth of meaning. The Old Testament served as a faithful guide for thousands of people over thousands of years. It was the best offered to man.
But when Christ came, the best got better…It’s not that the old law was bad, it’s just that the new law—salvation by faith in Christ—is better.
Genesis 28
1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 7:11-23
11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.
12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out--the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."
14 Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"
15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people."
17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
Jesus and John the Baptist
18 John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them,
19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?'"
21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.
22 So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
23 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."
Restoring Order
November 24, 2010 — by Julie Ackerman Link
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. —Malachi 4:2
As I looked at family members gathered around the Thanksgiving table, I smiled at the range of talents represented. At one end were doctors; at the other end were musicians. Thanks to doctors, human bodies operate more efficiently. Thanks to musicians, beautiful sounds uplift our spirits and soothe troubled minds.
Although their abilities are very different, doctors and musicians rely on the same thing: an orderly universe. Without order, there would be no predictability; without predictability, there would be no music or medicine.
Within our orderly world, disease is a sign that something is “out of order.” Healing is a sign that God will some day restore all things to their original condition (Acts 3:21). When John the Baptist wanted to know whether Jesus was the “Coming One,” Jesus said, “Go and tell John . . . the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:20-22). Healing was evidence that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah (Mal. 4:2).
I am thankful for music that soothes my troubled mind and soul, and for medicine that heals my body, because they remind me of the ultimate healing and restoration that Christ is accomplishing.
What are the prospects for this earth?
What hope is there for man?
A world restored through Jesus Christ
In whom we see God’s plan. —D. De Haan
Jesus specializes in restoration.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 24th, 2010
Direction of Focus
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters . . . , so our eyes look to the Lord our God . . . —Psalm 123:2
This verse is a description of total reliance on God. Just as the eyes of a servant are riveted on his master, our eyes should be directed to and focused on God. This is how knowledge of His countenance is gained and how God reveals Himself to us (seeIsaiah 53:1). Our spiritual strength begins to be drained when we stop lifting our eyes to Him. Our stamina is sapped, not so much through external troubles surrounding us but through problems in our thinking. We wrongfully think, “I suppose I’ve been stretching myself a little too much, standing too tall and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person.” We have to realize that no effort can be too high.
For example, you came to a crisis in your life, took a stand for God, and even had the witness of the Spirit as a confirmation that what you did was right. But now, maybe weeks or years have gone by, and you are slowly coming to the conclusion— “Well, maybe what I did showed too much pride or was superficial. Was I taking a stand a bit too high for me?” Your “rational” friends come and say, “Don’t be silly. We knew when you first talked about this spiritual awakening that it was a passing impulse, that you couldn’t hold up under the strain. And anyway, God doesn’t expect you to endure.” You respond by saying, “Well, I suppose I was expecting too much.” That sounds humble to say, but it means that your reliance on God is gone, and you are now relying on worldly opinion. The danger comes when, no longer relying on God, you neglect to focus your eyes on Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden stop will you realize that you have been the loser. Whenever there is a spiritual drain in your life, correct it immediately. Realize that something has been coming between you and God, and change or remove it at once.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Afraid of God - #6228
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Scotty had been begging his dad to play hide-and-seek with him for a couple of hours. Finally, Dad finished what he was doing and jumped into the game. He said, "Scotty, you count to 50 while I hide somewhere in the house." It took the little guy a while to count to that big number, but he finally got there. He began right there in the living room, looking behind all the curtains and the big furniture. No daddy. He looked in the dining room, the bathroom, the closets, the kitchen. No daddy. Which meant his father was hiding upstairs. Scotty was disappointed after he looked in the guest bedroom, the bathroom, and the master bedroom upstairs. Still no daddy. He knew there was only one place left to look; that big, dark closet in the master bedroom. Apprehensively, he slowly opened the door to that long old closet with the light switch he couldn't reach. He looked to the right. No daddy. He looked to the left, RRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Suddenly, there was a big grizzly bear, growling and coming at him. He ran as fast as his little legs would go; out of the bedroom, down the stairs, all the way through the downstairs until he was stopped by the locked door of the kitchen. That's when the growling bear caught him, grabbed him in his paws and hugged him! This was no bear trying to hurt him. This was his Daddy wanting to hold him.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Afraid of God."
So many people have made the same mistake Scotty made...about God, that is. They think He's a bear who wants to hurt them. When, in fact, He's a Father who wants to hold them. It may be that some wrong ideas about what God's like have kept you from ever experiencing His awesome love. Like that little boy, you've been running from a Father who just wants to love you.
Maybe you've got what God is like confused with what your father was like. Jesus said when we talk to God to call Him "Father." But for you, that word may bring memories of someone who hurt you, who betrayed you, who wasn't there for you, who you were never good enough for. But God isn't like that father. He's the Father we all wished we had: fair, trustworthy, loving, approachable, able to fix things for you, always there for you. How do we know what He's like? That's where Jesus comes in. We know Jesus was all of those things, and He said, "Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9 ).
Or maybe your religious background has made you feel like God is a bear to run from. The God they told you about seemed full of anger and condemnation. This was a God to fear, not to get close to. Here's what God Himself says about what He's like in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 John 4 , beginning with verse 18. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear...This is how God showed His love among us...He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
That's the God you were made by. That's the God you were made for. A God who wants to love you, not hurt you; whose love drives out the fear. Whose love for you is so massive that He desperately did not want to lose you. So He gave His one and only Son to come here and die on a cross to remove the sin that made it impossible for you to get to Him or to go to heaven and be with Him forever. All of God's anger against human sin was taken by Jesus on the cross. But Jesus didn't stay dead. He blasted out of His grave and proved that He can deliver the eternal life He promised. You can tell how much God loves you by how much He spent on you. He spent His Son for you.
And today, this Father you were made for is pursuing you. That's the tug you feel in your heart. That's Him. You've lived long enough without this love. You don't have to live another day without Him. This can be the day that you reach out to Jesus and tell Him, "Jesus, I'm not running anymore. I want to welcome You into my life because only You can forgive my sins and give me the relationship I was made for. I'm Yours, Jesus."
One thing that could help you be sure you belong to Him might be the information that I've put on our website. It's helped a lot of other people at a time like this. Would you just visit us at yoursforlife.net, or I'll send you my booklet Yours For Life. You can call and ask for it toll-free at 877-741-1200.
You've run from Him long enough. This is your day to run to Him. He'll love you like you've never been loved. And He'll never let you go.