Max Lucado Daily: A High Hope
The Gospel of Mark tells the story of a woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder for many years. She was among a crowd following Jesus and believed, “If I can reach him—just touch his clothes—I’ll be healed.”
A risky decision, don’t you think? To touch Jesus she’ll have to touch the people. If one of them recognizes her—hello rebuke, good-bye cure! But what choice does she have?
She has no money, no clout, no solutions. All she has is a crazy hunch that Jesus can help and a high hope that he will!
Maybe that’s all you have—a crazy hunch that Jesus can help and a high hope. You have nothing to give. But you’re hurting. And all you have to offer him is your hurt!
Faith is the belief that God is real and that God is good. There was no guarantee for the woman. She hoped he’d respond. She longed for it—but she didn’t know if he would.
All she knew was that he was there and that he was good.
Acts 1
Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas
12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk[c] from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters,[d] the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”
18 (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
20 “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms:
“‘May his place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in it,’[e]
and,
“‘May another take his place of leadership.’[f]
21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
23 So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Paul’s Vision and His Thorn
1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Avenue To Power
March 26, 2012— byDennis Fisher
I will . . . boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. —2 Corinthians 12:9
When Tarah was in high school, she had a growing fear that she would someday battle a serious illness. So she began to pray—asking God to spare her from this imagined illness. Then she reached a turning point in her thinking, and she yielded her future to God no matter what.
Years later, Tarah’s doctor found a cancerous tumor, which was successfully treated with chemotherapy. Tarah says that because she had entrusted her future to God, she was ready when the disease came. Her problem became an avenue for God’s strength.
This idea of surrendering to God can be seen in Paul’s life as well. His surrender came after the problem—“a thorn in the flesh”—had developed (2 Cor. 12:7). Paul prayed repeatedly about this difficulty, pleading for the Lord to take it from him. But God responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (v.9). Understanding this, Paul adopted a positive view: “Most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong” (vv.9-10).
In facing our fears and struggles, it’s vital that we yield totally to God. When we do, God can use our problems as an avenue for His power.
Whenever life’s burdens oppress you
And trials are too much to face,
Remember God’s strength in your weakness;
He’ll give you His power and grace. —Sper
Wielding our power is no substitute for yielding our will to God’s power.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 26, 2012
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity (1)
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God —Matthew 5:8
Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart ” who “see God.”
God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished. Not only must our “inner sanctuary” be kept right with God, but also the “outer courts” must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace. Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our “outer court” is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.
A practical help in keeping your personal purity unblemished in your relations with other people is to begin to see them as God does. Say to yourself, “That man or that woman is perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend or that relative is perfect in Christ Jesus!”
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Five Minutes Til Midnight - #6576
Monday, March 26, 2012
Two stories in one day's news stuck out to me. The first troubling story said that Twinkies could be going bankrupt. Now, how can that be? You talk about too big to fail! But, alas, the company that makes Twinkies was talking about filing for Chapter 11. Maybe if I eat enough of them in the next couple of weeks, I can make a difference.
But, then, there's the other story that is legitimately sobering; sort of a mirror of the times we're living in. They just reset the Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight. See, since 1947, that symbol of how close humans may be to imminent destruction has been set by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Now, in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight. Its "happy hour," I guess you could say, was 1991, when the Cold War thaw caused the Bulletin to set the clock at 17 minutes to midnight.
But recently, the dark shadows in our world have pushed the clock to five minutes before midnight.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Five Minutes Til Midnight."
Why do these world-watching scientists think it's so late? Well, the Japanese nuclear meltdown didn't help. And most menacing may be the deployment of over 20,000 nuclear weapons they said "with enough power to destroy the world's inhabitants many times over." And then they talked about "the prospect of nuclear weapons being used by some lone wolf, non-state actor."
Personally, I'm very glad that the hand that sets the real "doomsday clock" is the hand of Almighty God. I'll go with King David's declaration in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 31:14-15. He says, "I trust in You, O Lord; I say,' You are my God.' My times are in Your hands."
The symbolic "last days" language of the Book of Revelation describes a time when "a third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur" (Revelation 8:18). Peter said that "the day of God...will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat" (2 Peter 3:12). Those are hints of something cataclysmic, but it's hard to know just what it will actually look like in earth's final act.
But honestly, I'm not worried about it. Oh, I would be if I weren't sure about what happens when time is up, whether on this world's clock or, more personally, on the clock of my life. See, when Jesus came, He added a word to "life" - Eternal. As in life that nothing can take from you, unending, unloseable life, even beyond my life's final breath or my world's final moment.
Days before His brutal death on a cross, Jesus announced, "The hour has come...What shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour?' No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour" (John 12:23, 27). The reason He came - to die. Jesus, the one and only Son of God. Why? Listen to the Bible: "He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree" so that "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (1 Peter 2:24; John 3:16).
That's the love that captured my heart. Jesus took my spiritual doom on Himself, absorbing all the hell for all my sin. He did that for you, too. Three days later, He proved He's the only One who can truly give a person eternal life by blowing the doors off His grave on Easter morning.
See, God bursts the bubble of "I'll get to heaven by being good" when He describes eternal life as something that can't be earned. He says all we can earn is the "wages of sin" which (according to the Bible) is "death." He says, "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). By faith, I reached out and I took the gift that He paid for with His life.
So there'll be no doomsday for me or for anyone who has made the Savior their Savior. And maybe this is your day to do that; to reach out and say, "Jesus, I believe that some of those sins you died for on that cross were mine. And because You walked out of your grave, you are alive, and I want you to walk into my life today and secure my eternity."
I think if you go to our website, you'll find there some very practical help on how to be sure you belong to Him. YoursForLife.net. That's the website.
Listen, the clock on each of our lives is ticking and we can't see the clock. Only God can. When it strikes our personal midnight, destination will be set by decision; the one you've made about Jesus. I know where I'm going when it's midnight. I'm going Home. I hope you are too.