Max Lucado Daily: Received—Not Earned
For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:17
Can you imagine prospective parents saying, “We’d like to adopt Johnny, but first we want to know a few things. Will he be a good child? Healthy always? Oh, and can he fix his own meals? Do his own laundry?”
No agency would stand for such talk. They’d say, “Wait a minute. You don’t understand. You don’t adopt this child because of what he has; you adopt him because of what he needs. He needs a home.”
The same is true with God.
John 3:17 says, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
He doesn’t adopt us because of what we have. He doesn’t give us His name because of our intelligence, or our wallet or good attitude.… Adoption is something we receive, not something we earn.
John 1
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders[c] in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”[d]
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with[e] water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Hebrews 5:12–6:2
New International Version (NIV)
12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 6
1 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a] and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites,[b] the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
Baby Food
November 15, 2011 — by C. P. Hia
Solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. —Hebrews 5:14
Have you ever tasted baby food? I have. It’s terribly bland. But babies have no other choice without teeth. They certainly can’t eat a nice, juicy steak!
Sadly, some Christians are content with spiritual baby food. They are happy to go over and over the simple truths of the Scriptures and don’t move beyond the basics of the gospel (Heb. 6:1-2). By not sinking their teeth into deeper truths and more difficult Bible passages, they lack biblical understanding and convictions to make right choices (5:13). They may have been Christians for many years, but their spiritual abilities remain underdeveloped. They remain babies.
As children grow physically, they learn to eat solid food that gives them strength and vitality. In the same way, every believer needs to take on the responsibility to feed himself on solid spiritual food. To fail to do this is to remain spiritually weak and undernourished.
You can roughly tell the physical age of people by how they look. Their spiritual age is revealed by their ability to distinguish good from evil and by their personal character that’s shown day by day.
Is this spiritual discernment evident in your life? Or are you still on spiritual baby food?
To handle the Word of truth
Takes diligence and care,
So make the time to study it
And then that truth declare. —Hess
Apply yourself to the Scriptures and the Scriptures to yourself.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
"What Is That to You?"
Peter . . . said to Jesus, ’But Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ’. . . what is that to you? You follow Me’ —John 21:21-22
One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, “He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t.” You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, “What is that to you?” Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.
Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Jumping Before You've Heard It All - #6482
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
When I was in high school, I was a part of Youth For Christ's very active Bible Quiz program. Now, it was a long time ago, but I still remember a lot that I learned in studying books of the Bible in this highly competitive atmosphere.
There was a lot of intense excitement when we would get together. Sometimes, believe it or not, thousands of people would be there for the competition as the championship quiz teams would be pitted against each other, seated on chairs that used, well what was then sophisticated equipment, and it registered who got off the chair first, and then they had the first opportunity to answer the question. If they jumped during the question, which I often did, that was the best way to make sure you got the opportunity, you had to finish the question correctly and then give the answer.
So here is the Quiz Master asking, jump as soon as you think you can finish this question. Many times we were so high-strung that we'd jump too soon...ridiculously soon. For example we'd be quizzing on the whole Gospel of John, and the Quiz Master would say, "Wh..." And suddenly you'd see three people on their feet, and he'd call, "Number one." Oh, you almost always lost that question, "Wh..." Who could figure that out? Of course, you always lose when you jump too soon.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Jumping Before You've Heard It All."
Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 18:13 - the great wisdom of Solomon. He says, "He who answers before listening..." Okay, sounds like that old Bible quiz doesn't it? "He who answers before listening, that is his folly; that is his shame." Well, the New Testament version of that might be James 1:19, which says this: "Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak." Now we have just slightly re-written that one. We're quick to speak and slow to listen. And notice the listening comes before the speaking.
Solomon tells us that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. It's our folly! It's foolish! It's shameful if we speak before we listen. See, we hear the beginning of what someone is trying to tell us and we assume we know the rest. And like the old Bible quizzers, we jump with our reply. It happens in our marriage conversations. It happens between parents and children. We anticipate the rest and we don't understand each other as a result. Biblically wise people don't just listen to the sentence; they listen to the whole paragraph. They don't respond to the opening line. Oh, they may listen to the whole page. When you jump too soon, you usually end up misunderstanding. You react to the symptom, not the problem.
See, the person doesn't pay attention to what you're saying because you didn't pay attention to them. Conflict erupts, walls go up. If you played back the tape of you today, would we often hear you being quick to speak? If so, you might be inflicting hurt, frustration, misunderstanding and causing people to just shut down and not even want to tell you anymore.
How are you perceived by your mate, your children, your parents, your friends when it comes to listening? Maybe someone has basically stopped trying. But tell them you want another chance. It takes patience; it takes self-control to listen; not just to a person's words, but to their heart. It is, according to the Word of God, foolish not to listen before you speak.
Now, we're told that part of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is patience and self-control. You know, that's what it takes to listen before you speak. So, "Dear Lord, give me patience. Give me self-control. Teach me, Lord, to listen."
Take it from an old Bible quizzer who sometimes couldn't wait, "When you jump too soon, you usually get it wrong."
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