Max Lucado Daily: Jesus Came to Serve
Don’t focus so much on what you love to do that you neglect what needs to be done. A 3:00 AM diaper change fits in very few sweet spots! Visiting your sick neighbor might not come naturally to you. Still, the sick need to be encouraged, garages need sweeping, and diapers need changing.
The world needs servants. People like Jesus, who “did not come to be served, but to serve.” Jesus chose remote Nazareth over center-stage Jerusalem, his dad’s carpentry shop over a marble-columned palace, and three decades of anonymity over a life of popularity. Jesus selected prayer over sleep, the wilderness over the Jordan.
I’d have gone with angels. I’d have built my apostle team out of Gabriel and Michael. Not Jesus. He picked people! When they feared the storm, he stilled it.
When they had no food for the multitude, he provided it.
Jesus came to serve! So should we.
Proverbs 9
Invitations of Wisdom and Folly
1 Wisdom has built her house;
she has set up[f] its seven pillars.
2 She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her servants, and she calls
from the highest point of the city,
4 “Let all who are simple come to my house!”
To those who have no sense she says,
5 “Come, eat my food
and drink the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways and you will live;
walk in the way of insight.”
7 Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults;
whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.
8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you;
rebuke the wise and they will love you.
9 Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still;
teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
11 For through wisdom[g] your days will be many,
and years will be added to your life.
12 If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you;
if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.
13 Folly is an unruly woman;
she is simple and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the door of her house,
on a seat at the highest point of the city,
15 calling out to those who pass by,
who go straight on their way,
16 “Let all who are simple come to my house!”
To those who have no sense she says,
17 “Stolen water is sweet;
food eaten in secret is delicious!”
18 But little do they know that the dead are there,
that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 1:1-14
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Your Bio Here
March 21, 2012 — by Dave Branon
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. —John 1:14
While searching for an interesting way to instruct my college writing class about the concept of writing a biographical sketch, I found this idea: Write a biography in six words. When asked to do this, Pulitzer Prize winner Ernest Hemingway wrote this poignant bio: “For sale: baby shoes, never used.” Imagine the sad story behind those six words.
As I thought about this concept, I wondered if we could find any six-word biographies of people in the Bible. What I discovered was astonishing. Many of our scriptural heroes have already been described that way. For example, David, of whom God said: “A man after My own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22). Or Paul’s self-description: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:1). Or Paul’s description of Timothy: “My true son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2 NIV). And consider these words about Mary: “The virgin shall be with child” (Matt. 1:23). And about Jesus: “Became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
This exercise in precise descriptions of people of faith should cause us to wonder: What six-word description would best describe me? Would it be positive or negative? Would it be “Not an easy person to love” or “A shining light for the Lord”? What would your bio say?
Lord, help me to be what You want me to be
In character, actions, and will,
For You are the potter and I am the clay—
Your purposes I would fulfill. —Fitzhugh
Once lost, now found. Eternally thankful!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 21, 2012
Identified or Simply Interested?
I have been crucified with Christ . . . —Galatians 2:20
The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ . . . .” He did not say, “I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ,” or, “I will really make an effort to follow Him”-but-”I have been identified with Him in His death.” Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the Cross is accomplished in me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.
“. . . it is no longer I who live . . . .” My individuality remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are radically changed. I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to myself has been destroyed.
“. . . and the life which I now live in the flesh,” not the life which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh-the life which others can see, “I live by faith in the Son of God . . . .” This faith was not Paul’s own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the Son God had given to him (see Ephesians 2:8). It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits-a faith that comes only from the Son of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Why Fight When You Can Criticize? - #6573
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
I enjoy going to professional sporting events. I can't afford to very often, but every once in a while some tickets come my way. And I think my favorite to attend would be professional football games. Unfortunately, I always seem to be surrounded by experts at those games. You know what I mean? Those fans that are on a first-name basis with every player. You know them. Actually, the players don't know them, probably wouldn't admit it if they did, but they feel free (these fans) to call every player by his first name.
And, of course, all the people around me seem to know how every play should be made. Occasionally they'll cheer, but more often they criticize. Seems like they always know a better play to call, or a better defense, or a better everything. Now, there's one place in the stadium you don't hear too much of that critical chatter...on the field, because they're just too busy playing the game.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Fight When You Can Criticize?"
Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from the familiar story of David and Goliath. 1 Samuel 17:11 tells us what happened as the Philistine challenger, the giant named Goliath, came out every day and said, "Will someone come and fight me?" And every day, I guess you might say, "The Israeli Army headed for cover."
It goes like this, "On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified." It goes on to tell us that "Early in the morning, one morning, David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out as Jesse had directed." He was to take provisions to his brothers.
"He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions..." Okay, now I love this, "...shouting the war cry." Can't you hear him? "Hey, let's go get 'em! We will... We will stomp you! Yeah!" And then, of course, nobody goes out to fight anybody. Oh, but they're making a lot of war noises. Sometimes that sounds like the church a little bit, huh?
Well, then, in verse 24 it says, "When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. David asked the men standing near him, 'What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?'" And then, finally, David starts to sound like he wants to go out and do the job. He's going to get out of the stands and get in the game.
Listen to what happens. "When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, 'Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle.'" Okay, do you get the picture here? Here's a battle, there's all these guys watching like fans, and there's one guy willing to get out of the stands and he doesn't get cheered, he gets criticized!
Not much has changed. Oh, there's a battle raging right now; enemy forces are taking lives unchallenged all around us. And finally someone says, "You know, maybe someone better do something about this. I'm going to try to do something. I'm going to try to make a difference." Maybe he's a pastor, a teacher, a youth leader, an elder, a deacon, a missionary, or just an everyday Christian who's trying to step up and make a difference. Is he getting cheers or is he getting jeers? Is he getting support or criticism? Maybe you're mostly watching God's work right now. Maybe you've never really gotten involved, or maybe you were and you just got tired.
Remember, it's easy to criticize when you're not in the battle yourself, and it's terribly wrong. Players just don't have much time to criticize. Let me suggest to you that there might be two legitimate responses here. One is to take a position. Maybe there is someone better, but at least you're willing to go. Get in there and get involved in this holy battle. Or keep quiet unless it's to cheer. See, criticism destroys the morale of the one who is in the game. It discourages others from getting in the game themselves. Oh, and it destroys the person who's doing the criticizing.
The warriors out there are tired; they're undermanned. Why don't you have the critics just stay in the stands. Why don't you join the heroes who are in the game? They're the ones who don't criticize much, because they are playing the game.
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