Max Lucado Daily: He Cares
Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you. I Peter 5:7
Maybe you don’t want to trouble God with your hurts. After all, he’s got famines and pestilence and wars; he won’t care about my little struggles, you think.
Why don’t you let him decide that? He cared enough about a wedding to provide the wine. He cared enough about Peter’s tax payment to give him a coin. He cared enough about the woman at the well to give her answers.
Luke 21:20-38
New International Version (NIV)
20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
37 Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, 38 and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Peter 1:1-11
1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Confirming One’s Calling and Election
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters,[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Character At Play
October 17, 2011 — by Anne Cetas
His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. —2 Peter 1:3
A college football coach in the Bronx (New York) built his team around good character qualities. Instead of displaying their names on the back of their jerseys, the Maritime College players displayed words like family, respect, accountability, and character. Before each game, coach Clayton Kendrick-Holmes reminded his team to play by those principles on the field.
The apostle Peter had his own list of Christian qualities (2 Peter 1:5-7) that he encouraged believers to add to their life of faith:
Virtue. Fulfilling God’s design for a life with moral excellence.
Knowledge. Studying God’s Word to gain wisdom to combat falsehood.
Self-control. Revering God so much that we choose godly behavior.
Perseverance. Having a hopeful attitude even in difficulties because we’re confident in God’s character.
Godliness. Honoring the Lord in every relationship in life.
Brotherly kindness. Displaying a warmhearted affection for fellow believers.
Love. Sacrificing for the good of others.
Let’s develop these qualities in increasing measure and integrate them into every part of our life.
Just as the body grows in strength
With exercise each day,
Our spirit grows in godliness
By living life God’s way. —D. De Haan
Godly exercise is the key to godly character.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 17th, 2011
The Key of the Greater Work
. . . I say to you, he who believes in Me, . . . greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father —John 14:12
Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).
Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . .” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).
There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Missing You - #6461
Monday, October 17, 2011
We say a lot of things we don't really mean. For example, when we sign our letters, sincerely yours--now have you really been sincere about everything you said sincerely yours about? Or how about this one, the check is in the mail--well, sometimes yes, sometimes no; maybe just an intention. Here's a classic one that we often don't really mean, "Hey, let's get together sometime; we'll give you a call." How many times have you been told that, and then how many times did it really happen?
Often we'll say it and perhaps we even mean it at the time, but you know you get busy an hour later and you forget that you said that. "Hey, let's get together sometime." Well, it never happens. But you know there's someone who really means it when He says it. Well, you can tell by the tears in His eyes.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Missing You."
Our word for today from the Word of God is in Matthew 23:37. The scene, we are told in the Gospels, is that Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives which overlooks the city of Jerusalem. He says, "You who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing."
Now that's Matthew's account; Luke tells us that Jesus wept when he said that. That's only one of two times recorded in the Gospels where Jesus wept. One was at the tomb of Lazarus; the other was when he said this about the people that he loved in the city of Jerusalem. He says, "Oh how I wanted to be together with you. Let's get together sometime." He said it over and over again, but they never were willing. You say, "Well those terrible people in Jerusalem. How could they stand Him up like that; He wanted to be together with them, and they weren't willing? Well we need to look in the mirror for a minute because maybe that's us too.
It's interesting that when Jesus said, "Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door I will come in and supp with him and He with Me" (Revelation 3:20). He was speaking to the church when He said that. He said, "I want to be with My people; I want to be with the believers, but I can't get in." I wonder how many mornings He's wanted to be with you, but you were too busy; and He said, "Oh how I've longed to be with you, but you were not willing."
In a little booklet called "My Heart--Christ's Home," it pictures opening up your life to Christ as being like opening up the rooms of your house, and the man in the story meets Jesus in his study every morning until he gets too busy. And he just misses a day because he's on his way out to a busy schedule, and then another day, and pretty soon he hasn't been in there for a month. And one day he runs in there on his way out--he's grabbing his briefcase--he sees Jesus sitting there and he says, "Jesus, what are you doing here?" And Jesus very gently says to him, "Oh I've been here every morning, waiting for you." See, Jesus always shows up, and when you don't make it, the Bible doesn't care if you don't show up, but Jesus does.
Isn't it time for you to renew a regular time to be with the One who loves you the most; to listen to Him as He speaks to you through His word, to talk about your real feelings and your real needs with Jesus? He cares enough about you that He can actually shed tears when His people won't take the love and the peace He offers and the time to be with Him. Could it be that the Lord Jesus is asking you, "Let's get together again?" Maybe He's been missing you and it's been long enough.