Max Lucado Daily: Your Failures
The righteousness of God is revealed through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…Romans 3:22
Perhaps the heaviest burden we try to carry is the burden of mistakes and failures. What do you do with your failures?
Even if you’ve fallen, even if you’ve failed, even if everyone else has rejected you, Christ will not turn away from you.
Psalm 68:19 says, “Praise the Lord, God our Savior, who helps us every day.” Every day!
Christ came first and foremost to those who have not hope. He goes to those no one else would go to and says, “I’ll give you eternity!”
Only you can surrender your concerns to the Father. No one else can take those away and give them to God.
What better way to start the day than by laying your cares at Jesus’ feet?
Psalm 14
For the director of music. Of David.
1 The fool[e] says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.
2 The LORD looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.
4 Do all these evildoers know nothing?
They devour my people as though eating bread;
they never call on the LORD.
5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
for God is present in the company of the righteous.
6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,
but the LORD is their refuge.
7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When the LORD restores his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Philippians 1:21-30
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
Life Worthy of the Gospel
27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit,[a] striving together as one for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
Longing For Home
January 6, 2012 — by Bill Crowder
I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. —Philippians 1:23
When our son Stephen was a youngster, he went away for a week at a Christian summer camp. Later that week, we got a letter from him that was addressed to “Mom and Dad Crowder” and simply said, “Please come and take me home today.” What his child’s mind couldn’t comprehend, of course, was that it would be days before we got his letter and more time before we could come for him. All his young heart knew was that he longed for home and for Mom and Dad—and that can be tough for a child.
Sometimes we can be like Stephen as we think about this world. It’s easy to think longingly about being with Jesus and begin to wish we could go to our “eternal home” (Eccl. 12:5) where we will “be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). As God’s children (John 1:12), we know that this world will never truly be home to us. Like the apostle Paul, we especially feel that way when the struggles of life are hard. While in Rome awaiting trial, Paul wrote, “I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” (Phil. 1:23). He loved serving Christ, but a part of him longed to be with the Savior.
It’s comforting to know that we can think ahead to being with Jesus—in a home that is far better.
To see His face, this is my goal;
The deepest longing of my soul;
Through storm and stress my path I’ll trace
Till, satisfied, I see His face! —Chisholm
There is no place like home—especially when home is heaven.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 06, 2012
Worship
He moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord —Genesis 12:8
Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.
Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram “pitched his tent” between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time— there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life— worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Hurricane Named Peace - #6520
Friday, January 6, 2012
A few months ago I thought they were talking about my grandmother storming up the East Coast. Actually, it was a hurricane with the same name - Irene. Oh, and I know what that name means. It means peace. How ironic.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Hurricane Named Peace."
Of course, it was in the face of a monster life-hurricane that Jesus gave His disciples one of the greatest promises of peace ever made. Within hours, the Man for whom they have left everything would be arrested, and tortured and crucified like a criminal.
Our word for today from the Word of God, John 14{bible} beginning in verse 27, tells us that as this Category 5 "hurricane" was on the verge of ripping apart their world, Jesus said: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" ({bible}John 14:27).
Excuse me, but how can a devastating life-storm go hand-in-hand with peace?
I got a hint of how on the day they thought the plane I was on might crash. The hydraulic system had failed and we were being diverted to the nearest airport. The flight attendants were barely concealing their own anxiety, and they were drilling us as fast as they could in how to prepare for a crash landing (of course, they never mentioning that "c" word, but you could tell that's what it was about). Needless to say, it was suddenly very tense, very quiet on our flight.
There was a grandma next to me, and she was I guess pretty much a nervous wreck. She talked about seeing her grandchildren in New Jersey, and I listened and I did my best to be of some comfort to her, and even tried to lighten it up a little bit with a little humor. Then it was time to land on a runway that was flanked with these emergency vehicles; lights flashing everywhere. And thankfully, we landed safely, just a little bumpy.
We were packing up to leave, and grandma said to me, "How could you be so calm when everybody else was so uptight?" And I said, "Well, I had total peace the whole time, actually, because my peace isn't based on what's going on around me. It's based on Who's going on inside me. One day I asked Jesus to come into my life and take over, and He did, and nothing can take Him from me."
Now, that's the secret of hurricane peace. Your response to the tempest is defined by your anchor relationship with Jesus Christ, not the screaming winds of the storm. Or as the Bible says, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You" (Isaiah 26:3). The wind and the water won't determine what happens to me. Jesus will. And whatever may get washed away, I cannot lose the One who is my reason to live, my defining love, my unloseable security.
Of course, the peace that Jesus promised to His followers that dark night would come at an unthinkable price; His horrific death on a cross, because there is no peace for someone who's away from the God who made them. And, according to the Bible, we all are. Having the unshakeable peace of God depends on being at peace with God, and that couldn't happen without my sin being paid for. So the road to peace is paved with the blood of Jesus. Or as the Bible says, "He was crushed for our iniquities (or wrongdoings); the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5).
So, for you, peace will begin at the foot of Jesus' cross; the peace place where Jesus died to pay the price to make peace between you and God. And that peace becomes yours, that gift of eternal life becomes yours when you reach out and make it your own; when you personalize it by saying, "Jesus, I give myself to You because You died for me, and You're alive because You walked out of your grave. I want You to walk into my life." Let the peace begin! Let it happen today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
Please go visit our website and you can watch, or read, or listen to a presentation there that will help you understand how to begin your relationship with Him.
Hurricane-proof peace is a Person, and He'll be there when the storm is howling, and He'll be there when the storm has passed.
