Max Lucado Daily: Middle C
“From everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90:2
You and I need a middle C. Haven’t you had enough change in your life? Relationships change. Health changes. The weather changes. But the Yahweh who ruled the earth last night is the same Yahweh who rules it today. Same convictions. Same plan. Same mood. Same love. He never changes. You can no more alter God than a pebble can alter the rhythm of the Pacific. Yahweh is our Middle C. A still point in a turning world.
Judges 16
Samson and Delilah
1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.”
3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels[a] of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
7 Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”
8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”
11 He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”
12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.
13 Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”
He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 and[b] tightened it with the pin.
Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.
15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.
17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.[c] And his strength left him.
20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
The Death of Samson
23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,
“Our god has delivered our enemy
into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
and multiplied our slain.”
25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.
When they stood him among the pillars, 26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
31 Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led[d] Israel twenty years.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 139:1-14
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
The Trouble With Heroes
September 2, 2011 — by Dave Branon
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. —Psalm 139:14
When I was a kid, I had a hero: Pete Maravich, a high-scoring basketball player who handled the ball like a magician.
Problem was, my desire to be like Pistol Pete blocked my satisfaction with who God made me to be. When I realized I could never play like Pete, I grew discouraged. I even quit my college team briefly because I couldn’t measure up to the Maravich standard.
Kids still do that kind of thing. They grow unhappy with who God made them to be because they measure themselves by their “perfect” heroes.
Christian singer Jonny Diaz recognized this and wrote a song called “More Beautiful You.” The song begins: “Little girl fourteen flipping through a magazine; says she wants to look that way.” Some young girls wish they could be like Disney star Selena Gomez or another star the way I wanted to be like Maravich. Diaz sings, “There could never be a more beautiful you; don’t buy the
lies . . . ; you were made to fill a purpose that only you could do.” Diaz is saying what another songwriter said under the inspiration of God thousands of years ago: “[We are] fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14).
God made us the way He wants us to be. Believe it. There could never be a more beautiful you.
Lord, we are Yours, You are our God;
We have been made so wondrously;
This human frame in every part
Your wisdom, power, and love we see. —Anon.
We are beautiful masterpieces designed by God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 2nd, 2011
A Life of Pure and Holy Sacrifice
He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow . . . —John 7:38
Jesus did not say, “He who believes in Me will realize all the blessings of the fullness of God,” but, in essence, “He who believes in Me will have everything he receives escape out of him.” Our Lord’s teaching was always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a person— His purpose is to make a person exactly like Himself, and the Son of God is characterized by self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts. God’s purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us. Our spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the world measures it, but only by what God pours through us— and we cannot measure that at all.
When Mary of Bethany “broke the flask . . . of very costly oil . . . and poured it on [Jesus’] head,” it was an act for which no one else saw any special occasion; in fact, “. . . there were some who . . . said, ’Why was this fragrant oil wasted?’ ” (Mark 14:3-4). But Jesus commended Mary for her extravagant act of devotion, and said, “. . . wherever this gospel is preached . . . what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her” (Mark 14:9). Our Lord is filled with overflowing joy whenever He sees any of us doing what Mary did— not being bound by a particular set of rules, but being totally surrendered to Him. God poured out the life of His Son “that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). Are we prepared to pour out our lives for Him?
“He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”— and hundreds of other lives will be continually refreshed. Now is the time for us to break “the flask” of our lives, to stop seeking our own satisfaction, and to pour out our lives before Him. Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him?
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Give the Medicine Some Time - #6430
Friday, September 2, 2011
You know, all those headache remedies promise fast relief of course, but they all actually take time--even the best of them, whichever one that is. I mean, can you imagine someone with a headache and they take two aspirin, and immediately they say, "Nothing happened! My head still hurts. This stuff is bogus!" So they pop three more. In five minutes this person says, "I've still got a headache!" So they pop several more.
Now, pretty soon this person is going to be in trouble. You want to step in there and say, "Stop! You're going to hurt yourself if you keep this up!" And they say, "Yes, but I took the aspirin and nothing happened." Well, of course, you're going to come back and say, "Well, you have to wait for the result. You've got to give the medicine some time!"
Or imagine if you're taking penicillin. You take the dose that the doctor prescribed and you wait five minutes. You still have a fever, you still have a sore throat, you're still sick. So, you say, "Oh, nuts! I'm going to take the whole bottle!" No, no, no! This is not advisable! I'd hate to even think what would happen. You see, we've learned to wait for a healing effect before we use any more medicine. If we don't, well we're going to cause an even greater problem. That's especially true when you're treating someone you really love.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Give the Medicine Some Time."
As we look into Mark 4:26-29, our word for today from the Word of God, I want you to think about someone you are personally concerned about right now: a child, maybe a parent of yours, or a brother or sister, a close friend. And you've told them your concerns about them, and you've told them, and told them, and told them. And they still haven't changed. They're proceeding down a road that you're afraid will not lead to a headache, but to a heartache.
It could be that you're missing a vital step in the process of confronting people with the truth, and here's where we go to Mark 4:26. It's an agricultural passage really. "Jesus said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. And as soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.'"
Now, Jesus is saying that the farmer has the job of scattering seed. Then he re-enters the process when the seed is bearing fruit. But in between, look what the farmer does. He backs off. He gives the seed time to germinate. Now, if he goes over, digs it up, keeps looking at it, tampers with it, "Hey, I wonder if this thing's growing? I don't see anything happening," he's going to kill the growth. Jesus is telling us, "Give truth time to work, and quit panicking because it doesn't seem to be growing right away." It's like that medicine. Give the people you love a dose of God's truth, but then settle back and let it take effect, and in the meantime pray for that seed to germinate.
When we're concerned about someone we love, we tend to push them too much. We actually delay their ever coming to grips with the truth. We push them right away. They don't seem to be listening, so we say it too loud, too long, and too often. The more doses we try to force on them, we make them spit out the medicine that might change their life.
Truth requires time to germinate. It looks like nothing is happening, but don't try to force another dose or interfere with the growth of the seed. They need a little space. Faith in the Lord sometimes means shutting up and letting God use the truth that you spoke in love. Have patience while He works.
Don't try to make that loved one take a whole bottle of spiritual medicine all at once. Lovingly give a dose of truth, and then back off and let God grow it. Give the medicine some time.