Max Lucado Daily: Live the Life
“I am a voice calling out in the desert.” John 1:23
John was a voice for Christ with more than his voice. His life matched his words. When a person’s ways and words are the same, the fusion is explosive. But when a person says one thing and lives another, the result is destructive. People will know we are Christians, not because we bear the name, but because we live the life.
Judges 14
Samson’s Marriage
1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”
3 His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”
But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)
5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. 9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.
10 Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. 11 When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions.
12 “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. 13 If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”
“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”
14 He replied,
“Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet.”
For three days they could not give the answer.
15 On the fourth[b] day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property?”
16 Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”
“I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
Samson said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle.”
19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Galatians 2:15-21
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[a] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”[b]
Christ Living In Us
August 30, 2011 — by Albert Lee
I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. —2 Timothy 4:7-8
The Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. It is not an easy feat for anyone to accomplish. But Dick Hoyt participated in the race and completed it with his physically disabled son Rick. When Dick swam, he pulled Rick in a small boat. When Dick cycled, Rick was in a seat-pod on the bike. When Dick ran, he pushed Rick along in a wheelchair. Rick was dependent on his dad in order to finish the race. He couldn’t do it without him.
We see a parallel between their story and our own Christian life. Just as Rick was dependent on his dad, we are dependent on Christ to complete our Christian race.
As we strive to live a God-pleasing life, we realize that in spite of our best intentions and determination, we often stumble and fall short. By our strength alone, it is impossible. Oh, how we need the Lord’s help! And it has been provided. Paul declares it with these insightful words, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).
We cannot finish the Christian race on our own. We have to do so by depending on Jesus living in us.
With longing all my heart is filled
That like Him I may be,
As on the wondrous thought I dwell,
That Christ liveth in me. —Whittle
Faith connects our weakness to God’s strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 30th, 2011
Usefulness or Relationship?
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven —Luke 10:20
Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).
Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory . . .” (Hebrews 2:10).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Guard Could Save You a Lot of Grief - #6427
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Now, there's one good way to recognize the places that folks think are important--the guards. Yeah. I mean, they obviously think the White House is important; there are guards all around it. The bank usually has a guard. There are some club communities that I've seen where you don't get to even go into the neighborhood until the guard says, "Yes, somebody left a name here at the booth. You can go in."
Of course, there are guards at the airport, military installations, the ballpark. Oh, we know that important places need to be guarded; they need to be protected. You know, there is one important place in your life that really needs a guard, and probably doesn't have one. And it's not because of what will get in--it's because of what's getting out.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Guard Could Save You a Lot of Grief."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 13:3. It has to do with a part of you that may be doing quite a bit of damage, and it needs a guard, because important places have guards. Proverbs 13:3 says, "He who guards his lips, guards his life. But he who speaks rashly will come to ruin." A few chapters later in Proverbs 21:23 it says, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity." Boy, haven't we all learned that one the hard way?
I guess what God is talking about here is lip guard. Now, it's not a product I'm selling, but we do need the kind of lip guard the Bible talks about. Romans 3, an interesting passage, because it describes for us that "there is none righteous, no not one." And then in describing the sinfulness of us human beings, it gives the anatomy of sin. In the early verses it describes how our body actually carries out sin. And it mentions six specific, physical things that are involved in sinning. One time it mentions the eyes, one time it mentions the feet, and four times it mentions (guess what?) the mouth.
One could conclude from that, that most of the sinning we do, we do with our mouth. You probably let something go today verbally that may have hurt someone. Maybe it hurt another person, or maybe it hurt your reputation, or their reputation, or your chance to get something you need or want. Maybe it hurt the reputation of Jesus Christ. Sins of the mouth--they're the most common; they're the most damaging. They're the most accepted, and they shouldn't be.
When you let Christ become the Lord of your lips--your lip guard--the master of your mouth, you're really getting serious about your faith. Proverbs links it to survival. It says, "You should guard your lips. It's like guarding your life. It's for your own good." But somehow there's that last word you've got to have, right? Or that hurting point you have to make, or the critical word that seemed so clever at the time, the sarcasm, the name you called somebody, the accusation, the put down. If we could erase words like tapes or the scars that they leave like we erase chalkboards, but we can't.
We need a lip guard. It's time to focus that transforming power of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God on our run-away lips. It's got to be a daily battle, joined early before you speak to anyone. Consecrate your mouth to the Lord at the beginning of the day. Ask for grace to pause before you shoot someone verbally. And then start enjoying some victories; things that were almost said but you thought about them, prayed about them, and you never spoke them.
Don't let your mouth run on like it has been. Ask your Lord to guard your mouth. After all, important places have a guard, and nothing you have has more affect then your mouth. So, keep your lip guard handy.