Max Lucado Daily: The Power of the Good News
The Power of the Good News
Posted: 11 May 2011 11:01 PM PDT
“Do the work of telling the Good News.” 2 Timothy 4:5
For every hero in the spotlight, there are dozens in the shadows. They don’t get press. They don’t draw crowds. They don’t even write books! . . .
Behind a rock slide is a pebble. And a revival can begin with one sermon . . .
Tomorrow’s Spurgeon might be mowing your lawn. And the hero who inspires him might be nearer than you think. He might be in your mirror.
Numbers 27
Zelophehad’s Daughters
1 The daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah. They came forward 2 and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said, 3 “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah’s followers, who banded together against the LORD, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. 4 Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s relatives.”
5 So Moses brought their case before the LORD, 6 and the LORD said to him, 7 “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them.
8 “Say to the Israelites, ‘If a man dies and leaves no son, give his inheritance to his daughter. 9 If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers. 10 If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. 11 If his father had no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan, that he may possess it. This is to have the force of law for the Israelites, as the LORD commanded Moses.’”
Joshua to Succeed Moses
12 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go up this mountain in the Abarim Range and see the land I have given the Israelites. 13 After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, 14 for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes.” (These were the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.)
15 Moses said to the LORD, 16 “May the LORD, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community 17 to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”
18 So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership,[f] and lay your hand on him. 19 Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. 20 Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. 21 He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the LORD. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.”
22 Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. 23 Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the LORD instructed through Moses.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 51:1-13
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
Come Home
May 12, 2011 — by Cindy Hess Kasper
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. —Psalm 51:12
As 19-year-old Amelia waited in her doctor’s office, she recognized the familiar hymn “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling” playing over the speaker. It made her smile when she remembered the words. Perhaps a song with the lyrics “shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming” was not the most appropriate background music for a doctor’s office!
Some find this old hymn too sentimental for their taste. But the message of the chorus can be encouraging for the wayward sinner:
Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, “O sinner, come home!”
When a believer replaces God’s will with his own, he will find himself in a backslidden condition, out of fellowship with God, in an unenviable state. Although we sometimes yield to our self-centered nature, God is always ready to welcome us back. Because of His “lovingkindness” and “tender mercies,” it gives Him joy when we forsake our rebellious ways, return to Him, and ask for forgiveness (Ps. 51:1-2; Luke 15).
Has your heart and mind slipped away from your Savior? Jesus is calling and waiting for you to come back home.
O for the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me;
Though we have sinned He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me. —Thompson
A child of God is always welcomed home.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 12th, 2011
The Habit of Having No Habits
If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful . . . —2 Peter 1:8
When we first begin to form a habit, we are fully aware of it. There are times when we are aware of becoming virtuous and godly, but this awareness should only be a stage we quickly pass through as we grow spiritually. If we stop at this stage, we will develop a sense of spiritual pride. The right thing to do with godly habits is to immerse them in the life of the Lord until they become such a spontaneous expression of our lives that we are no longer aware of them. Our spiritual life continually causes us to focus our attention inwardly for the determined purpose of self-examination, because each of us has some qualities we have not yet added to our lives.
Your god may be your little Christian habit— the habit of prayer or Bible reading at certain times of your day. Watch how your Father will upset your schedule if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes. We say, “I can’t do that right now; this is my time alone with God.” No, this is your time alone with your habit. There is a quality that is still lacking in you. Identify your shortcoming and then look for opportunities to work into your life that missing quality.
Love means that there are no visible habits— that your habits are so immersed in the Lord that you practice them without realizing it. If you are consciously aware of your own holiness, you place limitations on yourself from doing certain things— things God is not restricting you from at all. This means there is a missing quality that needs to be added to your life. The only supernatural life is the life the Lord Jesus lived, and He was at home with God anywhere. Is there someplace where you are not at home with God? Then allow God to work through whatever that particular circumstance may be until you increase in Him, adding His qualities. Your life will then become the simple life of a child.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The "I Care" Overload - #6349
Thursday, May 12, 2011
There's at least one reason I hate to be away from home for very long, and there are actually more than one. I come back to this giant stack of mail, and sometimes emails. In fact, depending on how long I've been gone, sometimes I come back to a box of mail, and that's pretty intimidating.
Frankly, I have to tell you a lot of it comes from Christian organizations. Oh, one or two of the letters might even be from me...who knows? And as I wade through that stack, I see dozens of great causes: radio ministries, missions in a variety of countries, children's ministries, help for the hungry, youth organizations, Christian colleges. It's great and it's overwhelming! "How can I care about all this, Lord?" That's what I ask. "I can't do this." Well, actually, He's given me a pretty liberating answer, and it might be the answer for you too.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 'I Care' Overload."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Nehemiah 1 . Remember the question we're asking is, "How can I care about all these great things God is doing?" I think God's answer is, "You don't have to care about all of them." We'll find an answer here in the book of Nehemiah, and maybe you're familiar with that story. You have the Jews exiled in Persia for about 100 years. The city of Jerusalem, the center of Jewish identity has been torn down, and ravaged and burned, the walls are gone, the gates are down, and there's a serious need back home.
Nehemiah has been working for the Persian King as his cupbearer. He gets a report back on the conditions in his city, and here's his response. "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept" (Nehemiah 1:4 ). "For some days I mourned, fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven." Well, some of the fellows came back and they just kind of had a discussion. They said, "Boy, it's really in bad shape back there." You always find people who are willing to have a little committee meeting or discussion about it.
But Nehemiah has a much deeper reaction. He lets his heart be broken by it. You know what the result is? Out of his praying comes a plan. And out of that comes a miracle of leading Jewish people back to Jerusalem and rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem in 52 days. Now, Nehemiah never had any idea that was what was going to happen when he went to his knees. But you know how it started? With one man's broken heart. Nehemiah allowed God to break his heart for a cause. Will you?
Now, there's only one heart in all the universe that can contain all of the concerns there are in our lost world, and that's God's heart. But you know what He wants to do? He wants to put just a piece of His broken heart in yours. Would you let Him focus your prayer and your caring on maybe two or three concerns that you can really get involved in? He'll distribute all the concerns of His heart into many Christian hearts.
See, if we were all listening, two things would happen. First of all, the causes that are not of God would dry up, because God wouldn't be telling us to give to them. And the ones that are of God would have all they need.
So, do a Nehemiah. Get on your knees and say, "Go ahead, God, break my heart; break my heart for some cause that breaks Yours...maybe a couple of them." Let Him call you to give as He calls others to go. Don't give to personalities, or organizations, or the most desperate appeal. Give to support that for which God has broken your heart. Laser your giving on what He breaks your heart over. Who knows? You might even end up like Nehemiah; not only praying and giving, but getting involved.
An exciting series of events begins when one of God's kids gets on his knees and says, "Go ahead, God. Break my heart."
