Max Lucado Daily: It’s Not What You Do
It’s Not What You Do
“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:1 NIV
There is never a point at which you are any less saved than you were the first moment Christ saved you. Just because you were grumpy at breakfast doesn’t mean you were condemned at breakfast. When you lost your temper yesterday, you didn’t lose your salvation. Your name doesn’t disappear and reappear in the book of life according to your moods and actions . . .
You are saved, not because of what you do, but because of what Christ did.
Leviticus 10
The Death of Nadab and Abihu
1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
“‘Among those who approach me
I will be proved holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’”
Aaron remained silent.
4 Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.” 5 So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered.
6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become unkempt[d] and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the Israelites, may mourn for those the LORD has destroyed by fire. 7 Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting or you will die, because the LORD’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses said.
8 Then the LORD said to Aaron, 9 “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the tent of meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, 10 so that you can distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, 11 and so you can teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses.”
12 Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering left over from the food offerings prepared without yeast and presented to the LORD and eat it beside the altar, for it is most holy. 13 Eat it in the sanctuary area, because it is your share and your sons’ share of the food offerings presented to the LORD; for so I have been commanded. 14 But you and your sons and your daughters may eat the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. Eat them in a ceremonially clean place; they have been given to you and your children as your share of the Israelites’ fellowship offerings. 15 The thigh that was presented and the breast that was waved must be brought with the fat portions of the food offerings, to be waved before the LORD as a wave offering. This will be the perpetual share for you and your children, as the LORD has commanded.”
16 When Moses inquired about the goat of the sin offering[e] and found that it had been burned up, he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, and asked, 17 “Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the sanctuary area? It is most holy; it was given to you to take away the guilt of the community by making atonement for them before the LORD. 18 Since its blood was not taken into the Holy Place, you should have eaten the goat in the sanctuary area, as I commanded.”
19 Aaron replied to Moses, “Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the LORD have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?” 20 When Moses heard this, he was satisfied.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 6:4-14
John 6:4-14 (New International Version, ©2011)
4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Small Things
March 8, 2011 — by Joe Stowell
There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many? —John 6:9
Skeptical about the usefulness of a small lunch, Andrew said to Jesus, “What are [these five loaves and two fish] among so many?” (John 6:9). Yet the little lunch in the hands of Jesus turned out to be a huge blessing. So, before you think that you don’t have much to offer Jesus, consider this:
Edward Kimball, a Sunday school teacher in Boston, decided to visit a young man in his class to be sure he was a Christian. That day he led that man, Dwight L. Moody, to the Lord.
Moody, the Billy Graham of the 19th century, had a major impact on Wilbur Chapman. Chapman, a prominent evangelist, recruited Billy Sunday to join in his evangelistic campaigns. In turn, Sunday launched a national ministry that had great results in cities like Charlotte, North Carolina. An organization that started as a result of Sunday’s revival invited evangelist Mordecai Ham to Charlotte. In one of those meetings, Billy Graham received Christ as his Savior and later became the most prominent evangelist of our time.
When you think you don’t have much to offer, remember Sunday school teacher Edward Kimball, who spent a Saturday afternoon reaching out to someone in his class. God has a special way of using routine faithfulness in the “small things” to accomplish great things!
What may seem insignificant,
Mundane, routine, or small
Is often used by God to show
His power over all. —Sper
God uses small things to accomplish great things for His glory.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 8th, 2011
The Surrendered Life
I have been crucified with Christ . . . —Galatians 2:20
To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things. Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else. The first thing we must surrender is all of our pretense or deceit. What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty, or our efforts to do better, but real solid sin. Actually, that is all He can take from us. And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness. But we must surrender all pretense that we are anything, and give up all our claims of even being worthy of God’s consideration.
Once we have done that, the Spirit of God will show us what we need to surrender next. Along each step of this process, we will have to give up our claims to our rights to ourselves. Are we willing to surrender our grasp on all that we possess, our desires, and everything else in our lives? Are we ready to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?
We will suffer a sharp painful disillusionment before we fully surrender. When people really see themselves as the Lord sees them, it is not the terribly offensive sins of the flesh that shock them, but the awful nature of the pride of their own hearts opposing Jesus Christ. When they see themselves in the light of the Lord, the shame, horror, and desperate conviction hit home for them.
If you are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, make a determination to go on through the crisis, surrendering all that you have and all that you are to Him. And God will then equip you to do all that He requires of you.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Fat By Any Other Name - #6302
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
A number of years ago, my son was a lineman on the local football team, and all of his friends were too. And they were all lifting weight a lot and getting bigger. And they were all eating a lot, and also getting bigger because of that. Well, I noticed that all the guys who were playing on the line were developing big muscles and big stomachs to match. And I was dumb enough, because they were all bigger than I was, to comment on that one day. And my son indignantly said, "Dad, we're proud of that! That's 'lineman's gut'!" I never heard that before, but I mean it looked to me like it was "lineman's fat." But I guess I didn't know what it really was. Well, that same son later lost 30 pounds and the tummy was all gone. So, I said, "Son, do you remember when you told me that was 'lineman's gut'?" He looked at me and he said, "Dad, I think that's what we call a rationalization."
Yeah, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fat By Any Other Name."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Samuel chapter 15. We're looking at the life of King Saul, who has been commanded by God to perform, well, cancer surgery. That is, there's a group of people who have become spiritually a cancer in the land in which they live. They are called the Amalekites. They have defied God every step of the way, and God gives to King Saul, the first King of Israel, the command to totally eradicate all the Amalekites and any memory of them. In a sense, it is spiritual cancer surgery.
Saul decides to spare the king. That would make a nice trophy. And the best of the sheep; the best of the oxen. He has disobeyed the Lord. But, listen to what he says, "When Samuel says, 'How come I hear sheep and cattle if you've obeyed the Lord?' Saul answered, 'The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites. They spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God. But we totally destroyed the rest.' 'Stop,' Samuel said to Saul, 'let me tell you what the Lord has said to me last night.'" Well, Saul continues, "I did obey the Lord." He continues to say, "We gave the best of what was devoted to God to sacrifice to the Lord your God." But Samuel replied, "Rebellion is like the sin of divination; arrogance like the evil of idolatry. You have rejected the Word of the Lord. He has rejected you as king."
Saul has disobeyed what God said, but notice he's wrapping it up in spiritual language. But it doesn't cut it with God. The human mind has this devious ability to rationalize doesn't it? To call fat "lineman's gut"? But fat by any other name is fat. We have this ability to twist words and logic to fit what we want. Sin by any other name is still sin. Saul tries to call it "the Lord's instructions," "devoted to God," "sacrifice to the Lord." God calls it "rebellion," "arrogance," and "rejecting the Word of the Lord," and judgment falls.
See, you can repackage sin in all kinds of religious rationalizations, but you can't fool God. You can come up with a rationale that's good enough for people, good enough for you, but it is not good enough for God. Could it be that you've taken what you want and quieted your conscience by putting a spiritual name on it? "The Lord is leading me." Really, it's, "I want this, and don't argue with me." Maybe you're calling it "waiting on the Spirit," when you're really just being lazy. Or you're calling it love, when it's lust, adultery. You're saying, "Well, I need all these things to take care of my family," when it's really greed and materialism.
Oh, the examples are endless, because we don't like to deal with sin; we like to disguise it. Maybe today would be a good day to pray something like this, "Lord, am I calling sin by a nice name? I don't want to mask my disobedience any longer."
Deal with it before God deals with you. What does God call it? See, sin by any other name is still sin. And as the Bible says, "If we would judge ourselves, then we will not be judged."