Max Lucado Daily: Follow Me
Follow Me
Posted: 24 May 2011 11:01 PM PDT
“‘Follow Me,’” [Jesus] told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.” Matthew 2:9, NIV
You gotta wonder what Jesus saw in Matthew . . .
Whatever it was, it must’ve been something. Matthew heard the call and never went back. He spent the rest of his life convincing folks that the carpenter was the King. Jesus gave the call and never took it back. He spent his life dying for people like Matthew, convincing a lot of us that if he had a place for Matthew, he just might have a place for us.
Luke 1:57-80 (New International Version)
The Birth of John the Baptist
57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
61 They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.
Zechariah’s Song
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn[a] of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit[b]; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Ephesians 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
The Real Prize
May 25, 2011 — by Joe Stowell
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. —Ephesians 5:25
I’ve been amazed at the impact that my wife, Martie, has had on the lives of our kids. Very few roles demand the kind of unconditional, self-sacrificing perseverance and commitment as that of motherhood. I know for certain that my character and faith have been shaped and molded by my mom, Corabelle. Let’s face it, where would we be without our wives and mothers?
It reminds me of one of my favorite memories in sports history. Phil Mickelson walked up the 18th fairway at the Masters Golf Tournament in 2010 after his final putt to clinch one of golf’s most coveted prizes for the third time. But it wasn’t his victory leap on the green that had an impact on me. It was when he made a beeline through the crowd to his wife, who was battling life-threatening cancer. They embraced, and the camera caught a tear running down Phil’s cheek as he held his wife close for a long time.
Our wives need to experience the kind of sacrificial, selfless love that has been shown to us by the Lover of our souls. As Paul put it, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Eph. 5:25). Prizes come and go, but it’s the people you love—and who love you—that matter most.
A man who finds a godly wife
Is blest beyond compare;
She is his greatest prize in life—
A treasure rich and rare. —D. De Haan
Life is not about the prizes we win, but the people we love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 25th, 2011
The Good or The Best?
If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left —Genesis 13:9
As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.
Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.
Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “. . . walk before Me. . .” (Genesis 17:1).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
How to Flunk Out on God's Will - #6358
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Since I was three times a parent, I had to learn something about motivating kids to study. And that's not an easy job; it doesn't come naturally to most of us to want to just sit down and study. But I learned that there are a number of incentives. There are scholarships, threats, rewards, privileges, impassioned speeches. But I've also noticed that there are two words that motivate faster study than anything I know. Those words are "Final Exam."
It's amazing what activity those two words can generate. Fortunately we didn't have too much problem with our kids, but I have known a lot of kids who sort of have yawned and coasted their way through a subject, and suddenly they got interested when they heard those words, "Final exam!"
Take algebra for example. Somebody says, "Yeah, please take it." Well, let's use it as an example. The teacher is doing a final review just before the exam, and you really listen then and you cram way into the night. But you find out something about algebra; you can't just get into it before exams; it's too late then. You've got to be into a subject all the time or you'll never know what to do when you really have to know.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Flunk Out on God's Will."
Our word for today from the Word of God - familiar words. Many people have chosen these verses as their life verse. Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." That's a great promise, isn't it? "He will direct your paths." You know God has had a plan for you since before you were born, and there's nothing better, more meaningful, more exciting, more fulfilling to do with your life than to do His will. It's why you're here. Don't you want Him to direct your paths? You say, "Oh, yeah, that's great!"
You know how you do it? It says, "In all your ways acknowledge Him." Now, for many of us, God's leading isn't in all our ways. It's only an issue when we have a final exam, like a major life choice facing us. And suddenly we say, "Oh boy, I've got to get interested in God's Word. Oh, what's God's will?" Suddenly we start studying. "What shall I do about this job, about college, about this person I'm dating? What shall I do about this major financial choice, this career choice? Should we move? Should we stay here? Well, you know what? If you only go after God's leading at a major crossroads, it's too late to study.
If God hasn't been directing your days, well there's no way He can direct your life, because your life is made up of those days. You can't be selectively interested in God's will for the big three, or the big four, or the big five decisions of your life. This says, "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and then He'll direct your paths."
You know what God's will is? It's the natural next step taken by a Christian who's been following Jesus one day at a time. So you begin each day and you say something like this, "Lord, show me Your will for this 24 hours. In all my ways, in all my days - today in this 24 hours, what do You want me to do today? Now, those God-led 24 hours eventually bring you to one of life's major crossroads, and there you will already be the right person at the right place at the right time, and you will walk right into His will.
But if you suddenly get interested in what God wants, just before one of life's final exams, well, you will probably flunk out on God's will.
