Max Lucado Daily: To Be Saved By Grace
To Be Saved By Grace
Posted: 16 Jun 2011 11:01 PM PDT
“God gives us a free gift—life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
One of the hardest things to do is to be saved by grace. There’s something in us that reacts to God’s free gift. We have some weird compulsion to create laws, systems, and regulations that will make us “worthy” of our gift.
Why do we do that? The only reason I can figure is pride. To accept grace means to accept its necessity, and most folks don’t like to do that. To accept grace also means that one realizes his despair, and most people aren’t too keen on doing that either.
Deuteronomy 19
Cities of Refuge
1 When the LORD your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses, 2 then set aside for yourselves three cities in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 3 Determine the distances involved and divide into three parts the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that a person who kills someone may flee for refuge to one of these cities.
4 This is the rule concerning anyone who kills a person and flees there for safety—anyone who kills a neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought. 5 For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. 6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbor without malice aforethought. 7 This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities.
8 If the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, 9 because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the LORD your God and to walk always in obedience to him—then you are to set aside three more cities. 10 Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.
11 But if out of hate someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor, and then flees to one of these cities, 12 the killer shall be sent for by the town elders, be brought back from the city, and be handed over to the avenger of blood to die. 13 Show no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.
14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
Witnesses
15 One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
16 If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, 17 the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. 18 The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, 19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. 21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Timothy 6:6-19
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Final Charge to Timothy
11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
True Wealth
June 17, 2011 — by Joe Stowell
Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God. —1 Timothy 6:17
Money is a powerful force. We work for it, save it, spend it, use it to satisfy our earthside longings, and then wish we had more. Aware of its distracting danger, Jesus taught more about money than any other topic. And, as far as we know, He never took an offering for Himself. Clearly, He didn’t teach about giving to fill His own pockets. Instead, Jesus warned us that trusting in wealth and using it to gain power clogs our spiritual arteries more readily than most other impediments to spiritual development. In telling the story of the “rich fool,” He shamed His listeners for not being rich toward God (Luke 12:13-21), indicating that God has a far different definition of wealth than most of us.
So, what does it mean to be rich toward God? Paul tells us that those who are rich should not be conceited about their wealth, “nor to trust in uncertain riches” (1 Tim. 6:17). Rather, we are to “be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share” (v.18).
Interesting! God measures wealth by the quality of our lives and our generous disbursement of wealth to bless others. Not exactly Wall Street insider talk, but great advice for those of us who think that our security and reputation are tied up in the size of our bank account.
If we’ve been blessed with riches,
We must be rich in deeds;
God wants us to be generous
In meeting others’ needs. —Sper
Riches are a blessing only to those
who make them a blessing to others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
June 17th, 2011
Beware of Criticizing Others
Judge not, that you be not judged —Matthew 7:1
Jesus’ instructions with regard to judging others is very simply put; He says, “Don’t.” The average Christian is the most piercingly critical individual known. Criticism is one of the ordinary activities of people, but in the spiritual realm nothing is accomplished by it. The effect of criticism is the dividing up of the strengths of the one being criticized. The Holy Spirit is the only one in the proper position to criticize, and He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into fellowship with God when you are in a critical mood. Criticism serves to make you harsh, vindictive, and cruel, and leaves you with the soothing and flattering idea that you are somehow superior to others. Jesus says that as His disciple you should cultivate a temperament that is never critical. This will not happen quickly but must be developed over a span of time. You must constantly beware of anything that causes you to think of yourself as a superior person.
There is no escaping the penetrating search of my life by Jesus. If I see the little speck in your eye, it means that I have a plank of timber in my own (see Matthew 7:3-5). Every wrong thing that I see in you, God finds in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17-24). Stop having a measuring stick for other people. There is always at least one more fact, which we know nothing about, in every person’s situation. The first thing God does is to give us a thorough spiritual cleaning. After that, there is no possibility of pride remaining in us. I have never met a person I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Everything for the War Effort - #6375
Friday, June 17, 2011
When World War II began, almost every American's life changed, including my Dad's. He couldn't fight because of a medical problem, and he was working at that time in a plant that had been making some kind of industrial product. And suddenly almost overnight it was converted into a defense plant. They stopped making whatever little things they had been making, and they started to make airplane parts. Well, it was obvious what was happening. It was a war, and that plant had to be used to help win the war. During that time, not that I remember it personally, people made sacrifices of gasoline, and food, and rubber tires, and money. Why? Well, because you know that everything is needed to fight the war. It was then and it still is.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everything for the War Effort."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Numbers 32 - I'm going to begin reading at verse 5. I need to set the scene a little bit. The Jews are getting ready to enter the Promised Land. They're facing walled cities, barbarian tribes, and well-developed armies to fight. A couple of the tribes already have their inheritance on the peaceful side of Jordan; the east side of Jordan. They have an idea for Moses, "If we have found favor in your eyes," they said, "let this land be given to your servants as our possession." In other words, we'll just kind of settle down, start milking the cows. "'Do not make us cross the Jordan,' they said. Moses said to them, 'Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?'" The message to Moses from God to these comfortable folks: "This is your war, too."
You know, it's easy to forget in the comfort of American Christianity that there is a war going on. The forces of darkness know what time it is, and that there isn't much time left. They are throwing everything: all the money, all the talent--everything they can into the battle for people's hearts, for people's families, for their lives, for their eternal futures, and this is war!
Let me explain what you see going on in your school, in your family, in your community. It's war! And Jesus Christ fights that war through His people. The devil is no match for God's people when they're mobilized to fight him in Jesus' name. But many of us seem to have forgotten.
There's a war going on. When you realize there's a war, you throw everything you've got into the war effort. You put your money into it, you put your talent into it, you put your time into it. It's all converted to the war effort.
You sacrifice what you might like to have for yourself. You say, "You know what? After we win this thing, I can have that." In other parts of the world, Christians know that its hand-to-hand combat and they live like it. In North America, it's easy to forget--just to send a few warriors out; you know, some of those professional warriors who can take all the risks for us and maybe have all the faith for us, and maybe we can just send a check.
God says to you and me, as He says to those believers centuries ago, "This is your war, too." God's victory strategy is that every Christian sacrifices for His battle. But the best I have--not the least I have--is used to make an eternal difference somewhere in the world or somewhere in my community.
Amy Carmichael said, "We'll have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short hours to win them." We are in those few short hours!
