Max Lucado Daily: Lift Your Eyes Off the Weeds
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. I Chronicles 16:34”
It’s so easy to be ungrateful—to make the mistake my friend’s caddie made.
Scott’s a professional golfer who plays at the Masters Golf Tournament hosted by the Augusta National Golf Club. The Augusta National is to golfers what the Smithsonian is to history buffs: the ultimate experience! You’d think you walked into an oil painting. Groomers manicure that course as if she’s a wedding-day bride.
Scott said, “You won’t see a single weed all week!”
Imagine Scott’s surprise when his caddie announced, “I found one!”
Don’t we do the same? We walk in a garden of grace. God’s love sprouts around us like lilacs—but we go on weed hunts. How many flowers do we miss in the process?
Lift your eyes off the weeds. Collect your blessings—His kindnesses.
Assemble your reasons for gratitude. And choose to make every day—a great day!
John 13:21-38
New International Version (NIV)
21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”
22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him,[a] God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 55:4-22
4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen on me.
5 Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.
6 I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
7 I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;[a]
8 I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.”
9 Lord, confuse the wicked, confound their words,
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they prowl about on its walls;
malice and abuse are within it.
11 Destructive forces are at work in the city;
threats and lies never leave its streets.
12 If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were rising against me,
I could hide.
13 But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
at the house of God,
as we walked about
among the worshipers.
15 Let death take my enemies by surprise;
let them go down alive to the realm of the dead,
for evil finds lodging among them.
16 As for me, I call to God,
and the LORD saves me.
17 Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.
18 He rescues me unharmed
from the battle waged against me,
even though many oppose me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old,
who does not change—
he will hear them and humble them,
because they have no fear of God.
20 My companion attacks his friends;
he violates his covenant.
21 His talk is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords.
22 Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken.
Wings Like A Dove
February 13, 2012 — by David H. Roper
Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. —Psalm 55:6
David sighed, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest” (Ps. 55:6). As for me, I’d build a cabin in the Sawtooths, or take a permanent post in a fire-lookout tower. When life weighs on me, I too yearn to fly away and be at rest.
David wrote freely about his circumstances: Violence, oppression, and strife surrounded him on all sides, stirred up by the disloyalty of an old friend (55:8-14). Fear and terror, pain and trembling, anxiety and restlessness overwhelmed him (vv.4-5). Is it any wonder he longed to fly away?
But escape was impossible. He could not evade his lot. He could only give his circumstances to God: “As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice” (vv.16-17).
Whatever our circumstances—a burdensome ministry, a difficult marriage, joblessness, or a deep loneliness—we can give them to God. He has lifted the burden of our sins; will He not lift the weight of our sorrows? We have trusted Him with our eternal souls; can we not entrust our present circumstances to Him? “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you” (55:22).
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by. —Oatman
Because God cares about us, we can leave our cares with Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 13, 2012
Samuel answered, ’Speak, for Your servant hears’ —1 Samuel 3:10
Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, “You are My friends . . .” (John 15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don’t even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.
The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God’s message to me. What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don’t want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don’t hear Him. The attitude of a child of God should always be, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Boom, A Battler, and A Brother - #6546
Monday, February 13, 2012
Have you ever noticed how a baby learns to walk? Yeah, it's the "step, boom" method. Someone comes along and says, "I think it's about time", sets them up on their legs - you know, kind of spaghetti legs - and they take one step, boom. And, of course, they get up again, and the next time it's step, step, boom. And then step, step, step, boom, etc. You know.
Now, we have family movies of our oldest son learning to walk years ago. It was pretty much by that method. And when he went down, you could see him grabbing something and battling to get his muscles going all in one direction so he could get up. And then you saw his big sister reaching over to give him a hand. Actually, that's what it takes whenever you go step, boom.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Boom, A Battler, and A Brother."
We're going to look today at a man who stepped out to serve the Lord and went "boom." His name is John Mark. Acts 15 is our word for today from the Word of God, where we're hearing about a missionary journey that Barnabas and Paul were launching. "Barnabas," it says, "wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it was wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus."
Now, in order to get the full story, realize you need to turn to 2 Timothy 4, where at the end of Paul's life he is now alone in a Roman prison. He will soon be executed for his loyalty to Jesus Christ, and guess who he mentions? Mark - this guy who bombed out earlier in his Christian work, and Paul said, "Boy, I don't think this guy's going to make it." Now Paul writes, "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful for me in my ministry." Wow!
You know what the message is? When you're following Christ, failure is not final! But it takes two kinds of people to recover someone from a fall. It takes a battler and a brother. Mark was the battler. You know, if that baby goes "step, boom" he can't just say, "Well, I fell down. I guess I'll never walk. I'm not cut out for this." He can't just keep lying there helpless on the floor. No! He'll still be there when he's 18; his Mom will be vacuuming around him. No, he gets up and he says in his own little brain, "I will walk again."
Maybe that's you. Maybe you've been giving up because you failed. But the gospel of Mark's life is that you can be restored. You can be useful again if you're willing to battle back. But recovery also requires a brother; one like Barnabas, who will work with you patiently, who will deal with your weaknesses, who will give you an extra chance. And it takes a brother like Paul, who though he had his doubts, is willing to accept him once he's restored, and not to continue to say, "Oh, yeah, he's the failure."
Now, one of these is you, or it needs to be. Maybe you're a Mark and you feel that you've fallen. But now ask the Lord for the courage and the patience to battle back. Maybe you're a Barnabas who reaches out to that person that others have given up on, maybe even a member of your own family. Or maybe you're Paul, who can make or break somebody's comeback by whether you greet them with open arms or folded arms.
When one of God's kids goes "step, boom" there is hope if there's a battler determined to walk again and a brother who's offering a hand.