Max Lucado Daily: Dressed in Christ
All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galations 3:27, NIV
While on the cross, Jesus felt the indignity and disgrace of a criminal. No. He was not guilty. No. He had not committed a sin. And, no, He did not deserve to be sentenced. But you and I were, we had, and we did.
Though we come to the cross dressed in sin, we leave dressed in “garments of salvation” (Isa. 61:10, NIV). Indeed, we leave dressed in Christ Himself.
Luke 9
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, 8 others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. 9 But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”
13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”
They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Philemon 1:1-9
1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker— 2 also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:
3 Grace and peace to you[a] from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. 7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.
Paul’s Plea for Onesimus
8 Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, 9 yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—
Paul, The Aged
July 13, 2011 — by Dennis Fisher
Being such a one as Paul, the aged, . . . I appeal to you for my son Onesimus. —Philemon 1:9-10
Celebrating my 60th birthday really changed my perspective on life— I used to think people in their sixties were “old.” Then I started counting the number of productive years I might have left and set the number at 10. I went along with this dead-end kind of thinking until I remembered a very productive co-worker who was 85. So I sought him out to ask what life after 60 was like. He told me of some of the wonderful ministry opportunities the Lord had given him over the last 25 years.
The apostle Paul, referring to himself as “aged” in Philemon 1:9, really resonates with my own sense of aging: “Being such a one as Paul, the aged, . . . I appeal to you for my son Onesimus” (vv.9-10). Paul was asking Philemon to take back his runaway servant Onesimus. Some scholars believe Paul was in his late forties or early fifties when he wrote this—certainly not a senior citizen by today’s standards. But life expectancy in those days was much shorter. Yet despite awareness of his mature years, Paul went on to serve the Lord for several more years.
While we may experience physical or other kinds of limitations, what really matters is that we continue doing what we can for the Lord until He calls us Home.
Think not your work of no account
Although it may be small;
The Lord marks well your faithfulness
When you give Him your all. —D. De Haan
God can use you at any age—if you are willing.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
July 13th, 2011
The Price of the Vision
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord . . . —Isaiah 6:1
Our soul’s personal history with God is often an account of the death of our heroes. Over and over again God has to remove our friends to put Himself in their place, and that is when we falter, fail, and become discouraged. Let me think about this personally— when the person died who represented for me all that God was, did I give up on everything in life? Did I become ill or disheartened? Or did I do as Isaiah did and see the Lord?
My vision of God is dependent upon the condition of my character. My character determines whether or not truth can even be revealed to me. Before I can say, “I saw the Lord,” there must be something in my character that conforms to the likeness of God. Until I am born again and really begin to see the kingdom of God, I only see from the perspective of my own biases. What I need is God’s surgical procedure— His use of external circumstances to bring about internal purification.
Your priorities must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God and no one else is taken into account whatsoever. Your prayer will then be, “In all the world there is no one but You, dear God; there is no one but You.”
Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Holding On Tight - #6393
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Sometimes something happens in the news that just leaves images you can't forget; that massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan, that was one of those. Those images of that inescapable wall of water consuming everything in its path! I mean, those are moments that are more than impressive. They're deeply moving. Sometimes even the usually dispassionate reporters get caught up in a story like that.
I heard this one reporter telling, with some real emotion, about a scene she had witnessed in a survivors' shelter. It was a dad holding his three-year-old daughter. When the tsunami hit, he grabbed her in his arms. Those raging waters nearly pulled her out of his arms. He had to hold onto her, literally for dear life, and he saved her. And now, even though they had been safe in the shelter for two days, he was still clinging tightly to his little girl. He refused to let her go.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Holding On Tight."
That man loves that girl. He fought for her. He saved her, and he will not let her go.
Now, I'm a father, but I actually see myself in that little child with a Heavenly Father who has saved me from what would otherwise have carried me into an unthinkable eternity. In the words of the Bible, "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness" (Colossians 1:13). Here's how the Bible describes the unshakeable relationship that God wants to have with all those who belong to Him; that He wants to have with you. "The Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty Savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs" (Colossians 1:13 - NLB).
See, God offers you a security that transcends even life's most devastating losses. There's the disturbing question to ask about everything and everyone that we depend on, "Is it something or someone you can lose?" If it is, then you can never have any real security, any real peace. You never know when you'll lose what you've been hanging onto. But when you belong to Jesus, you are forever safe because He's hanging onto you! And He will not let you go.
In Colossians 1:13, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus says, "I give them eternal life and they shall never perish...No one can snatch them out of My Father's hand." See, God fought for your life. He gave everything to save you. From what? From the spiritual death penalty we all deserve for taking the life that God gave us and doing life our way instead of His way in thousands of choices we make over a lifetime. We have, in essence, said we believe in God but then we take over the running of our life, and that's called sin. And the Bible says, "The soul who sins will die" (p>
From the moment you tell Jesus that you've giving yourself to Him as your Rescuer from your sin, God becomes your Father and you become His child. And He will never let go of you. He gave His Son to rescue you. He's not about to lose you now. The question is, are you sure that there's been a time when you told Jesus, "You're my only hope. I'm Yours." If you're not sure; if you want to be sure, make this the day that you turn to Him. You talk to Him. You say, "Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me. You walked out of Your grave so You could walk into my life, and I'm giving myself to You."
Let me encourage you to go check out our website, because right there you will find right out of the Bible, the information that will help be a personal guide to you to make sure you are safe in a relationship with Jesus Christ. YoursForLife.net.
God has promised that He will hold on tight to the one He has saved. And I'll tell you, in the cascading waters of these uncertain times we're living in that's really good to know.
