Max Lucado Daily: Preparation
Preparation
Posted: 05 Jun 2011 11:01 PM PDT
“Think only about the things in heaven.” Colossians 3:2
Engaged people are obsessed with preparation. The right dress. The right weight. The right hair and the right tux. They want everything to be right. Why? So their fiancée will marry them? No. Just the opposite. They want to look their best because their fiancée is marrying them.
The same is true for us. We want to look our best for Christ. We want our hearts to be pure and our thoughts to be clean . . . We want to be prepared.
Deuteronomy 10
Tablets Like the First Ones
1 At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.[a] 2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”
3 So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 The LORD wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. 5 Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.
6 (The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. 7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water. 8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today. 9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the LORD is their inheritance, as the LORD your God told them.)
10 Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the LORD listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you. 11 “Go,” the LORD said to me, “and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”
Fear the LORD
12 And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
14 To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. 16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. 20 Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. 21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Peter 4:12-19
Suffering for Being a Christian
12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And,
“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”[a]
19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Bull Sharks
June 6, 2011 — by Bill Crowder
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. —1 Peter 4:12
Following a recent lunch discussion, I decided to research the comment that a bull shark attack had once occurred in Lake Michigan. It seemed like such an impossible thought that we all scoffed at the idea of sharks in a freshwater lake so far inland. I found one online site that claimed a bull shark attack did occur in Lake Michigan in 1955, but it was never verified. A shark attack in Lake Michigan? If the story were true, it would definitely be a rare occurrence.
Wouldn’t it be great if hard times were like Lake Michigan bull shark attacks—rare or even untrue? But they aren’t. Hardships and difficulties are common. It’s just that when they happen to us, we think they shouldn’t.
Perhaps that is why the apostle Peter, writing to first-century followers of Christ going through tough times, said, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you” (1 Peter 4:12). These trials are not abnormal—and once we get past our surprise, we can turn to the Father who ministers deeply to our hearts and in our lives. He has a love that never fails. And in our world filled with trials, that kind of love is desperately needed.
Underneath the restless surface
Of each trial that comes in life
Flows the Savior’s love and power—
They can calm our inner strife. —D. De Haan
By the sunshine of His love,
God paints on our clouds the rainbow of His grace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
June 6th, 2011
"Work Out" What God "Works in" You
. . . work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you . . . —Philippians 2:12-13
Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience, the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our will always agrees with God. Yet you say, “But I don’t know if my will is in agreement with God.” Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. What causes you to say “I will not obey” is something less deep and penetrating than your will. It is perversity or stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with God. The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin.
The will is the essential element in God’s creation of human beings— sin is a perverse nature which entered into people. In someone who has been born again, the source of the will is Almighty God. “. . . for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” With focused attention and great care, you have to “work out” what God “works in” you— not work to accomplish or earn “your own salvation,” but work it out so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect redemption of the Lord. As you do this, you do not bring an opposing will up against God’s will— God’s will is your will. Your natural choices will be in accordance with God’s will, and living this life will be as natural as breathing. Stubbornness is an unintelligent barrier, refusing enlightenment and blocking its flow. The only thing to do with this barrier of stubbornness is to blow it up with “dynamite,” and the “dynamite” is obedience to the Holy Spirit.
Do I believe that Almighty God is the Source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The King's Speech - #6366
Monday, June 6, 2011
Now, I don't really go see many movies. Look, my popcorn is much cheaper than theirs, and actually, I don't like the sticky "cinemuck" on the floor. Now, I haven't seen this one either, but the story's fascinating. It's called The King's Speech, and it walked off with all kinds of Academy Awards.
King George VI was handicapped with a stutter, and he had to go on radio to give the speech of his life. Great Britain is about to go to war, and their king must rally them. Ultimately he is able to say what he needs to say to the people who must hear it because of the man who gives him the coaching and the help he needs.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The King's Speech."
Now, I'm personally familiar with that story line. Well, actually, every follower of Jesus should be. Because we've all been positioned by Him to deliver a message from the King of all kings, with all the help we'll need. It's a message people must hear, because their eternity depends on it.
But we hold back because we're afraid we'll fail, we'll mess it up, or people won't like us. What we're missing is that we're not in this alone. There is Someone who has promised to give us everything we will need if we open our mouths.
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in 2 Corinthians 5:19. It says, "God was in Christ, restoring the world to Himself, no longer counting men's sins against them but blotting them out." This is the wonderful message He has given us to tell others. "We are Christ's ambassadors..." Now, if you belong to Jesus, the King Himself has given you a life-changing trust; a message to deliver.
Since the eternal destinies of the people around us depend on hearing the King's message, our silence can be for them a silent death sentence. God told me, so I would tell them, and I don't. So they may live and die without ever hearing what Jesus did on the cross for them because I failed them, and I failed Him.
As bold as I am speaking on a platform, I know, as most believers do, the fear that keeps us from telling people close to us about our Jesus. I still experience that. But in those moments of fear and holding back this life-saving message, we can experience the wonder of what God promised to a reluctant, inadequate Moses. He said, "I will be with you...Now, go; I will help you speak. I will teach you what to say" (Exodus 3:11, 4:12).
You know, so often I have failed to deliver the message of Jesus because I was afraid of what might happen to me if I told them. But isn't the greater fear what will happen to them if I don't tell them?
The lepers in the book of 2 Kings, who had found all this food at an enemy camp at a time when all the people in the city were dying of starvation, after stuffing themselves made this realization. They said, "This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves...We're not doing right" (2 Kings 7:9). Could that be us?
Hey, the King will go with me. The King will give me the words to say. He's the hand; I'm just the glove.
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