Max Lucado Daily: Nothing in Between
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6, NKJV
Jesus leaves us with two options. Accept him as God or reject him as a megalomaniac. There is no third alternative . . .
Call him crazy or crown him as king. Dismiss him as a fraud or declare him to be God. Walk away from him or bow before him, but don’t play games with him. Don’t call him a great man. Don’t list him among decent folk . . . He is either God or godless. Heaven sent or hell born. All hope or all hype. But nothing in between.
1 Samuel 12
Samuel’s Farewell Speech
1 Samuel said to all Israel, “I have listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you. 2 Now you have a king as your leader. As for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have been your leader from my youth until this day. 3 Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the LORD and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right.”
4 “You have not cheated or oppressed us,” they replied. “You have not taken anything from anyone’s hand.”
5 Samuel said to them, “The LORD is witness against you, and also his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.”
“He is witness,” they said.
6 Then Samuel said to the people, “It is the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your ancestors up out of Egypt. 7 Now then, stand here, because I am going to confront you with evidence before the LORD as to all the righteous acts performed by the LORD for you and your ancestors.
8 “After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the LORD for help, and the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place.
9 “But they forgot the LORD their God; so he sold them into the hand of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them. 10 They cried out to the LORD and said, ‘We have sinned; we have forsaken the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.’ 11 Then the LORD sent Jerub-Baal,[c] Barak,[d] Jephthah and Samuel,[e] and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around you, so that you lived in safety.
12 “But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, ‘No, we want a king to rule over us’—even though the LORD your God was your king. 13 Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for; see, the LORD has set a king over you. 14 If you fear the LORD and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the LORD your God—good! 15 But if you do not obey the LORD, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors.
16 “Now then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes! 17 Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the LORD when you asked for a king.”
18 Then Samuel called on the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the LORD and of Samuel.
19 The people all said to Samuel, “Pray to the LORD your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.”
20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. 21 Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. 22 For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own. 23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. 24 But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. 25 Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Ephesians 2:11-22
Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
The Story Of A Wall
September 29, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. —Ephesians 2:14
While visiting the ruins of Hadrian’s Wall in Northern England, I reflected on the fact that this may be the most remembered achievement of the Roman emperor who came to power in ad 117. As many as 18,000 Roman soldiers manned this 80-mile-long barrier, built to keep the northern barbarians from invading the south.
Hadrian is remembered for building a physical wall to keep people out. In contrast, Jesus Christ is remembered for tearing down a spiritual wall to let people in.
When the early church experienced tension between believers of Jewish and non-Jewish birth, Paul told them that, through Christ, they stood equally in the family of God. “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation . . . so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace . . . . For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:14-15,18).
One of the most beautiful aspects of the Christian faith is the unity among those who follow Jesus. Through His death on the cross, Christ has removed the barriers that so often separate people and has drawn us together in true friendship and love.
God’s people have so much to do
In serving Christ today
That they should use their precious time
To share, to love, to pray. —Branon
Christian unity begins at the cross.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 29th, 2011
The Awareness of the Call
. . . for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16
We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural—something that is inexpressible and produces a “glow.” At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through—”I chose you . . .” (John 15:16). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.
If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, “. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.
If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Faucet Fascination - #6449
Thursday, September 29, 2011
I'll bet you turned on the water this morning and never gave it a thought. Well, you probably didn't grow up in the middle of a desert. You know, speaking of deserts, there was a great story years ago about the legendary Lawrence of Arabia. There was a movie made about his life. He had made many friends there in his campaigns and they had grown up in the desert, and they did not take running water for granted.
Well, he actually took a few of those men with him to Paris, and they stayed in a really nice hotel. And since these guys had grown up in the desert, they were amazed by this running water in their hotel room. Wow! What an event! And on the day they were packing to go home, Lawrence found them trying to remove the bathroom faucets and put them in their suitcases to take them home with them. They wanted those things back in the desert with them. At which point Lawrence explained to them that the water doesn't come from the faucet, it comes from a reservoir up in the mountains. See, they thought the water came from what the water came through.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Faucet Fascination."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Deuteronomy 8, and God says in verse 2, "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert." Speaking of deserts...and then He says, "He humbled you, causing you to hunger..." That's kind of curious. "...causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."
Okay, God is the reservoir. Everything we need originates from Him: the money, the friends, the transportation, the love, the spiritual support. And He sends it through earthly faucets. In this case, where He's talking about satisfying a physical need for food, He's referring to bread. And God is teaching you that bread isn't the only way to meet your need.
Now, we have a lot of earthly faucets that God's supply comes through: pay checks, special people, pastors, systems, people we've always looked to. And God can deliver a thousand different ways. We suffer from faucet fascination. We start to put our faith in the means, and then suddenly our faucet is gone: people move, people die, people let you down, jobs and companies change, things break down, things disappear. No problem! The water never came from the faucet anyway.
God has two means of upgrading our trust from the faucet to our Father. First it says here He causes you to hunger. He allows the systems to fail sometimes. Maybe you're anxious right now because you have a need with no obvious supply to meet it--no bread so to speak, like the ancient Jews. Well, we don't learn that God is our security until our usual supply dries up. Maybe that's where you are right now.
Step two: God feeds you with something like the Bible says here, "...that neither you nor your fathers had known." He comes up with this surprisingly inventive substitute for the system you have been relying on; a new unimagined means of meeting your need. And it comes in a surprising form from a surprising place. And you say, "God, it's you that it all comes from isn't it?" And you step up to a wonderful new security, one that can peacefully accept the loss of any faucet in your life. Because it was only a means that God came through.
God's your reservoir and He never dries up. So, quit trying to put those faucets in your suitcase.
