Max Lucado Daily: You Need A Savior
“What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Luke 18:27 NIV
The rich young ruler thought heaven was just a payment away. It only made sense. You work hard, pay your dues, and “zap”—your account is credited as paid in full. Jesus said, “No way.” What you want costs way more than you can pay. You don’t need a system, you need a Savior. You don’t need a resume, you need a Redeemer. For “what is impossible with me is possible with God.”
Psalm 21[c]
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 The king rejoices in your strength, LORD.
How great is his joy in the victories you give!
2 You have granted him his heart’s desire
and have not withheld the request of his lips.[d]
3 You came to greet him with rich blessings
and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him—
length of days, for ever and ever.
5 Through the victories you gave, his glory is great;
you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.
6 Surely you have granted him unending blessings
and made him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the LORD;
through the unfailing love of the Most High
he will not be shaken.
8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies;
your right hand will seize your foes.
9 When you appear for battle,
you will burn them up as in a blazing furnace.
The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath,
and his fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
their posterity from mankind.
11 Though they plot evil against you
and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed.
12 You will make them turn their backs
when you aim at them with drawn bow.
13 Be exalted in your strength, LORD;
we will sing and praise your might.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 139:1-16
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Each Life A Gift
January 15, 2012 — by Dave Branon
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. —Psalm 139:14
A young woman was pregnant but unmarried. And even though she lived in a society that didn’t place a high value on unborn life, she wisely chose to allow her baby to live.
The child, whom she generously made available for adoption, became part of a loving Christian family who nurtured their precious daughter, loved her, and showed her the way to Christ.
Before that girl reached adulthood, however, she died. Her death left a massive void in her family’s life, but it also left behind memories of childhood joy and youthful enthusiasm. Sure, her death created a gaping hole in the hearts of all who loved her, but imagine what they would have missed had they never held her in their arms, shared Jesus with her, laughed with her, taught her, and cherished her.
Every life—every child—is a wonderfully made sample of God’s handiwork (Ps. 139). Every human is an image-bearing likeness of God (Gen. 1:27) and a descendant of our first God-breathed parent, Adam.
Death robs us of a certain completion we desire in a life, but it also reminds us of the value of each life God creates (Col. 1:16). Cherish the gift of life and savor the joy of God’s handiwork.
Every life has been created—
God’s handiwork displayed;
When we cherish His creation,
We value what He’s made. —Sper
All life is created by God and bears His autograph.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him . . . that just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection-a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.