Max Lucado Daily: Holiness
God, examine me and know my heart…Lead me on the road to everlasting life. Psalm 139:23-24
You don’t have to be like the world to have an impact on the world. You don’t have to be like the crowd to change the crowd. You don’t have to lower yourself down to their level to lift them up to your level. Holiness doesn’t seek to be odd. Holiness seeks to be like God.
Luke 22
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
1 Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2 and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4 And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5 They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6 He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
The Last Supper
7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.
10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.[a] 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!” 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 37:23-26
23 The LORD makes firm the steps
of the one who delights in him;
24 though he may stumble, he will not fall,
for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
25 I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.
26 They are always generous and lend freely;
their children will be a blessing.[a]
My Fingernails Or His Hand?
October 20, 2011 — by Dave Branon
The Lord upholds him with His hand. —Psalm 37:24
Tough times can cause us to get our perspective turned around. I was reminded of this recently as I talked to a fellow-griever—another parent who, like Sue and me, lost a teenage daughter to death suddenly and without warning.
She told me she had been missing her daughter terribly, and she told God she felt as if she were hanging on by her fingernails. Then she felt as if God reminded her that His hand of protection was there to hold her up—that she could let go, and He would catch her.
That’s a better perspective, isn’t it? This picture reminds us that when troubles come and we feel least able to hold on to our faith, it’s not up to us. It’s up to God to support us with His mighty hand.
Psalm 37:23-24 says: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord . . . . Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.” And Psalm 63:8 tells us: “My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.”
In tough times, we can become so preoccupied with our role in “clinging to God” that we forget about His promised protection. It’s not our fingernails that sustain us—it’s His loving, upholding hand.
God’s hand that holds the ocean’s depths
Can hold my small affairs;
His hand that guides the universe,
Can carry all my cares. —Anon.
No one is more secure than the one who is held in God’s hand.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Is God’s Will My Will?
This is the will of God, your sanctification . . . —1 Thessalonians 4:3
Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.
All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Surprises in the Storm - #6464
Thursday, October 20, 2011
It was some years ago, but I remember when they closed our local airport. Yeah, there was a violent storm at Newark airport, and thousands of people had their plans suddenly changed. Storms have a way of doing that. Did you ever notice that? There's a snow storm, for example, and schools and businesses oh, they all had their plans made for the day, and suddenly all those plans are out the window. Meetings that had to be today are amazingly rescheduled. Planes and ships are diverted or blown off course. You see, a storm is a classic embodiment of that familiar phrase, "Due to circumstances beyond our control..." Maybe you're in the middle of a storm right now. Your life, your plans are being blown around, and it seems like everything is out of control. I've got good news for you today.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Surprises in the Storm."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is going to come from Acts 27. It's about surprises in the storm. Now, I don't know where your storm is right now, but maybe there's something that is just blowing your life out of control. By the way, if you're not in a storm, well just stay tuned; you'll have yours pretty soon. That's just the way life is. You're just waiting and yours is on the way, because we all get them. Now maybe in your life right now things are just suddenly out of control financially or at work. Or there's a family situation that you just can't seem to change. Or it could be that your health has suddenly become turbulent. Somehow there's an out-of-control time in your life. Well, you'll be able to relate to Paul's storm in Acts 27.
What was happening was that he was being taken by Roman soldiers on a grain ship from Israel to Rome. They had a lot of water to cross to get from where Israel is and to cross the ocean and to get over to Italy where they needed to be, and in the middle of all this they encountered a terrible storm that lasted for fourteen days. Hurricane strength, we're told in Acts 27:20, "When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved."
Now, if you've ever felt like all your points of reference were gone, you couldn't see the sun, the moon, the stars--all the things you usually count on, the storm was that bad. The things you were able to hang on to before, they're not there. Well, maybe you're there right now, and you know what, it is easy to give up hope. Well the outcome of the story you need to take note of. It says, "Everyone reached land in safety." They were blown into the rocks after two weeks, but it says they were on an island. And in chapter 28 we found out the island was called Malta. Do you know where Malta is? It's on the southern coast of Italy.
It's right where they had been heading all the time. Oh, they'd been out of control for two weeks or so it seemed, but the whole time they had been out of control they had been right on course and so are you. Nahum 1:3 says, "The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and the storm."
Now it may feel like you're either going nowhere right now or you're on the verge of disaster; maybe on the verge of being blown on the rocks. But remember, the surprise in the storm is this: that God uses these out-of-control times. He uses them to blow His children right where they were supposed to go all along. I know it feels like your life is out of control, but you know what? You're really right on course.
