Max Lucado Daily: Back From The Dead
Back From The Dead
“Thomas said, ‘I will not believe it until I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were.’” John 20:25
Jesus gave Thomas exactly what he requested. He extended his hands one more time. And was Thomas ever surprised. He did a double take, fell flat on his face, and cried, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
Jesus must have smiled. He knew he had a winner in Thomas . . . Legend has him hopping a freighter to India where they had to kill him to get him to quit talking about his friend who came back from the dead.
Mark 14
Jesus Anointed at Bethany
1 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 2 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”
3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages[a] and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you,[b] and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
The Last Supper
12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”
19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”
20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 “This is my blood of the[c] covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Samuel 12:1-23
Nathan Rebukes David
1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for[a] the LORD, the son born to you will die.”
15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth[b] on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”
19 David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.
“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”
20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
21 His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”
22 He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
Moving Past Sinful Failure
April 21, 2011 — by Randy Kilgore
I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. —Isaiah 43:25
How should we handle moments of faith-failure, when we’ve damaged the kingdom of God in the eyes of our friends and family or dishonored God in our actions?
We can learn from King David after his humiliation in the Bathsheba scandal. Though the terrible consequences of that sin could not be avoided, he found his way back to a relationship with God that made it possible for him to continue to serve Him. We too can find our way back.
David’s pattern in 2 Samuel 12 serves us well: We need to declare our error candidly (v.13) and seek God’s forgiveness. Then we can ask God that others be spared the consequences of our actions (v.16). Finally, we need to recognize that sometimes the consequences simply cannot be avoided and must be endured. While we always mourn those consequences, we can’t allow them to so consume us that we cease to be servants of God (vv.20-23).
Satan not only delights in the moment of our failure but also in the spiritual inactivity that sometimes snares us in our remorse. When we’ve blown our witness, we are and should be humbled. But we should not multiply the damage by retreating into silence and obscurity as ambassadors of Christ. We can move past failure.
Action Suggestion
If after you’ve confessed your sin to God, you still suffer
with guilty feelings, memorize Proverbs 24:16 and
1 John 1:9 and ask God to help you believe His Word.
God forgives our sins completely
to restore us to His presence and service.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 21th, 2011
Don’t Hurt the Lord
Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? —John 14:9
Our Lord must be repeatedly astounded at us-astounded at how “un-simple” we are. It is our own opinions that make us dense and slow to understand, but when we are simple we are never dense; we have discernment all the time. Philip expected the future revelation of a tremendous mystery, but not in Jesus, the Person he thought he already knew. The mystery of God is not in what is going to be-it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the future in some overwhelming, momentous event. We have no reluctance to obey Jesus, but it is highly probable that we are hurting Him by what we ask-”Lord, show us the Father . . .” (John 14:8). His response immediately comes back to us as He says, “Can’t you see Him? He is always right here or He is nowhere to be found.” We look for God to exhibit Himself to His children, but God only exhibits Himself in His children. And while others see the evidence, the child of God does not. We want to be fully aware of what God is doing in us, but we cannot have complete awareness and expect to remain reasonable or balanced in our expectations of Him. If all we are asking God to give us is experiences, and the awareness of those experiences is blocking our way, we hurt the Lord. The very questions we ask hurt Jesus, because they are not the questions of a child.
“Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (14:1, 27). Am I then hurting Jesus by allowing my heart to be troubled? . If I believe in Jesus and His attributes, am I living up to my belief? Am I allowing anything to disturb my heart, or am I allowing any questions to come in which are unsound or unbalanced? I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Servant Has the Key - #6334
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Going to Amsterdam for Billy Graham's great conference on evangelism has to be one of the most awesome experiences of my life. Billy Graham brought together about 10,000 evangelists from 174 countries. I mean, these huge meetings were unforgettable! And yet, I would have to say that one of the most special moments involved a crowd of a total of two people. It was me and the bus driver.
Yeah. See, I had been asked to be a bus captain for one of the 120 buses that went out loaded with evangelists. We were being sent out to many different sites in Holland to share Christ with people that day. So we weren't just talking about it, we were doing it. Now, our bus driver and I got into an argument over lunches. Yeah. See, we were supposed to have these box lunches that we were going to eat on the bus before we got to the site. That was the only time we'd have to eat. He said, "There's no way you're going to put those on my bus. I know who'll have to clean up the mess." I said, "Look, how about this? If I promise to clean up the mess, can we eat them on the bus? We really need the time." He said, "I know who will clean it up. It will be me no matter what you say." I said to him, "Look, will you just give me a chance? You inspect the bus after I'm done."
Well, he gave me the chance, and I took the garbage bags and went around and tried to make the bus as clean as I could. And that cleanup led to a two-hour conversation that changed the bus driver's life and taught me again what it takes to get a person interested in Jesus.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Servant Has the Key."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke chapter 22, verses 26-27. I'll share that with you in just a minute. Let me tell you about Richard, my bus driver. See, we had worked on that garbage...rather I had, because he took my word for it that I was going to clean it up. And as I hauled the last garbage off, he said, "You know, you kept your word. I can't believe you would clean up all the corners of the bus." I really didn't think it was any big deal, but he did. Right after that, he began to talk about disappointing relationships in his life and the loneliness he had experienced. And the amazing thing is, not too long after that I got a letter from him. And in that letter he gave me the greatest news he could.
See, when we got on the bus, he told me he didn't believe in God. He thought it was kind of ironic that he was taking all these Christian evangelists around. He was very closed at the start. But you know what opened him up? The door was opened by somebody cleaning up the garbage. I got a letter that said, "Ron, I have given my life to Christ." Richard, in his broken English writing from Holland, told me that he will be in heaven with us some day. Wow!
Well, here's what Jesus said in Luke 22 . He talked about this in one simple sentence. He said, "I am among you as one who serves." Jesus captured our hearts by coming here...not with a spotlight or a microphone, but with a towel and a basin. He came as a servant and we were overwhelmed.
Maybe you know someone who's closed to the Gospel. You're looking for a way to open them up, a new witnessing technique, or a book you can give them, or just the right meeting to take them to. Why don't you try being what Jesus was? Find a way to be a servant to them. You say, "Well, Ron, I want my family to know Christ." Then why not win the right to be heard by doing the dirty work around the house; by pitching in, by sharing the burden of the work there? At school, become the one who listens to your friend, who helps, who runs errands, who refuses to talk badly about people. At work be the one who cares about their load, not just your load.
See, in a self-serving world, a servant is really noticed. They're a non-threatening person, and a person can relax then around you. And then you can share your Jesus with them. How do you open up a hard heart? Well, the servant has the key.