Max Lucado Daily: Jesus Works in Community
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8”
None of us can do what all of us can do—Jesus works in community!
In 1976, an earthquake devastated the highlands of Guatemala. Thousands were killed and even more left homeless. Twelve of us from our college volunteered to help out during spring break. Most of us were ministry students. All of us loved to discuss theology. I can’t remember the list. But by the time we reached Guatemala, I’d discerned the faithful from the infidels. I knew who was in and who was out!
But our task turned rivals into partners. We were a team. We began to sing together. Pray together. It was Jesus’ plan all along. Jesus didn’t issue individual assignments. He didn’t move one-by-one down the line and knight each individual. He did, however, say in Acts 1:8, “You—all of you collectively—shall be my witnesses!”
John 20
The Empty Tomb
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of John’s Gospel
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 98
A psalm.
1 Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The LORD has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the LORD,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.
The Wonder Of Wilderness
March 19, 2012 — by Philip Yancey
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. —Psalm 98:4
The psalmists had an advantage in praise because of their closer tie to the natural world. David began life outdoors as a shepherd, then spent years hiding in the rocky terrain of Israel. Not surprisingly, a great love, even reverence, for the natural world shines through many of his poems. The psalms present a world that fits together as a whole, with everything upheld by a personal God watching over it.
Wilderness announces to our senses the splendor of an invisible, untamable God. How can we not offer praise to the One who dreamed up porcupines and elk, who splashed bright-green aspen trees across hillsides of gray rock, who transforms the same landscape into a work of art with every blizzard?
The world, in the psalmist’s imagination, cannot contain the delight God inspires. “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises” (Ps. 98:4). Nature itself joins in: “Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the Lord” (v.8).
The psalms wonderfully solve the problem of a praise-deficient culture by providing the necessary words. We merely need to enter into those words, letting God use the psalms to realign our inner attitudes.
All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing, Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam, Thou silver moon
with softer gleam! O praise Him! —St. Francis of Assisi
In praise, the creature happily acknowledges that everything good comes from the Creator.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 19, 2012
Abraham’s Life of Faith
He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8
In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26.
Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason—a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.
The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day—in and day—out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith—a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God. . .” (Romans 4:3).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
So Much Hurt - #6571
Monday, March 19, 2012
Maybe it's Prozac I need before I watch the news any more, because I know I'm going to be hit with stories and numbers that just quantify a lot of hurt in a lot of lives. I mean, there's jobs lost, and homes lost, and loved ones lost, record numbers living in poverty, and struggling families, and devastating disasters, and always, always, people dying.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You about "So Much Hurt."
Recently, as I called a bunch of friends about an upcoming event, I kept running into that hurt in people I know. Kathy's husband died from a massive brain tumor only days after they returned from their family vacation. She's trying to figure out life without him.
One friend poured out a heart broken by what's happening to their family. Travis talked about the collapse of the construction business and their battle to save their own home and their son's. Rob - who's like Mr. Healthy - is suddenly in this pain-wracked battle to beat the cancer that just seemed to come out of nowhere. More calls, more pain. And that's just one day's phone conversations.
It's a reminder that behind all those statistics and news stories are very real, very hurting people. These conversations have elevated three strong realities that sometimes slip off my radar. One, I don't pray enough for my friends. Two, my problems really aren't that big. Three, well, this one takes me back to an unforgettable moment in a funeral home.
Bob was the young assistant pastor at our church, and he died very suddenly. And by human reckoning, way too soon. I struggled for what to say as I walked up to his casket, and here's his widow, Judy, standing there with their three young, unfinished children. Before I could try to comfort Judy, she comforted me. She held her kids close and just said three words, "Jesus is enough." Wow!
And that was the recurring bottom line in my phone conversations. Because my friends weren't just talking about hurt. They were talking about hope. They were talking about their Jesus who continues to be "enough." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Psalm 34:18. It says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted." You know what? They are feeling Him unusually close. They have His promise that "your strength will equal your days" (Deuteronomy 33:25). And they're telling me about uncommon strength they cannot explain.
They are believing what the Bible says, "All things work together for good to those who love God" (Romans 8:28). Yes, a chapter may be over, but their life isn't. Because there is a Plan! My friend in construction can see some of the Plan in the pain. He said, "Because of it, we're closer to God and each other than ever before." There is a Savior who provides for you, whether or not there's a paycheck, who sustains you when you can barely move, who holds you when no one on earth can help.
I honestly don't know how folks do life's deepest valleys without Jesus. He is literally the margin of emotional and spiritual survival. David said, "And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Why? "Because You are with me" (Psalm 23:4). Jesus said, "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20). I know He'll never leave me. Because if He was ever going to, it would have been when He was pouring out His life for me on the cross to pay for everything I've ever done against Him. He didn't leave me then. He won't leave me now.
Our suddenly-widowed friend, Kathy, said there are some days that she pulls in the driveway from the grocery store and says, "I don't even know how I got there and back." I think I know how.
When our son was three years old, we visited the U.S. Capitol in Washington. I remember him looking up that massive flight of steps and thinking, "Man, there's no way." Well, he made it to the top, because his Daddy carried him where he couldn't go. See, when you can't walk, your Father will carry you. I really can do "all things through Christ who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13), because Jesus really is enough.
A call from my wife came recently with crushing news about a couple dear to us. They are frontline spiritual heroes. The wife, Nancy, died earlier that morning after a long, grueling battle with cancer, and our hearts were heavy. But she had recently said, "The only question is where I'm going to get healed - either here or in heaven."
She had walked through the valley of the shadow of death with Jesus by her side all the way, and that was all the difference. And her husband? Well, his Daddy is carrying him.
