Max Lucado Daily: A Smiling God
“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them. Psalm 126:2”
I’m not one who easily envisions a smiling God. A weeping God, yes. An angry God, okay. A mighty God, you bet! But a chuckling God? It seems too—too unlike what God should do. Which just shows how much I know—or don’t know—about God!
What do I think he was doing when he stretched the neck of the giraffe? What about the eight legs of the octopus? And what do I envision on his face when he saw Adam’s first glance at Eve? A yawn? Hardly.
Is that him smiling as Jonah lands on the beach? Is that a twinkle in his eye as the disciples feed thousands with one boy’s lunch? Can you honestly imagine Jesus bounding children on his knee with a somber face?
No, I think Jesus smiled. I think he smiled a bit at people and a lot with people!
Acts 4
Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin
1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.
5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’[a]
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”
18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
21 After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Corinthians 16:1-12
The Collection for Jerusalem
16 Now regarding your question about the money being collected for God’s people in Jerusalem. You should follow the same procedure I gave to the churches in Galatia. 2 On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don’t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once. 3 When I come, I will write letters of recommendation for the messengers you choose to deliver your gift to Jerusalem. 4 And if it seems appropriate for me to go along, they can travel with me.
Paul’s Final Instructions
5 I am coming to visit you after I have been to Macedonia,[a] for I am planning to travel through Macedonia. 6 Perhaps I will stay awhile with you, possibly all winter, and then you can send me on my way to my next destination. 7 This time I don’t want to make just a short visit and then go right on. I want to come and stay awhile, if the Lord will let me. 8 In the meantime, I will be staying here at Ephesus until the Festival of Pentecost. 9 There is a wide-open door for a great work here, although many oppose me.
10 When Timothy comes, don’t intimidate him. He is doing the Lord’s work, just as I am. 11 Don’t let anyone treat him with contempt. Send him on his way with your blessing when he returns to me. I expect him to come with the other believers.[b]
12 Now about our brother Apollos—I urged him to visit you with the other believers, but he was not willing to go right now. He will see you later when he has the opportunity.
Open Doors
April 11, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher
For a great and effective door has opened to me. —1 Corinthians 16:9
The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) wrote: “If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but . . . for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible.”
The apostle Paul saw some great ministry possibilities in his life situations. He used the open doors God provided to witness for Christ. When he was arrested in Jerusalem and appeared before Governor Felix, he used the opportunity to proclaim the gospel (Acts 24:24). While he and Silas were in prison, they shared the gospel with the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:25-34). And later Paul used his imprisonment in Rome as an opportunity to encourage the Philippian believers in their faith (Phil. 1:12-18).
In writing to the church at Corinth, Paul told the believers he wanted to visit and spend some time with them, but that he needed to stay in Ephesus because of an opportunity for ministry: “I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me” (1 Cor. 16:8-9). And Paul also involved others by asking them to pray for open doors so he could speak clearly about Christ (Col. 4:3).
Ask God to show you possible open doors of service. You might be surprised at what you see.
Jesus said to one and all:
“Take your cross and follow Me.”
When you sense the Spirit’s call,
Seize the opportunity! —Hess
God writes opportunity on one side of the door and responsibility on the other.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 11, 2012
Complete and Effective Divinity
If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection . . . —Romans 6:5
Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have experienced crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a definite likeness to Him. The Spirit of Jesus entering me rearranges my personal life before God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him the authority to give the life of God to me, and the experiences of my life must now be built on the foundation of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness.
The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God— His complete and effective divinity— to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house— He invades all of it. And once I decide that my “old man” (that is, my heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals to me. Once I have made that important decision about sin, it is easy to “reckon” that I am actually “dead indeed to sin,” because I find the life of Jesus in me all the time (Romans 6:11). Just as there is only one kind of humanity, there is only one kind of holiness— the holiness of Jesus. And it is His holiness that has been given to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Dark Crossroads - #6588
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
After Whitney Houston's sudden death, the world has fixated on replaying her iconic and now more poignant performances of her signature songs. And what stuck in my mind is the video they have shown of one of her first performances and the video of one of her last.
The early video shows her as a young girl, singing in her Newark, New Jersey church, belting out "just a little talk with Jesus makes it right." The other video was called "Whitney's last public performance." It appeared to be an impromptu duet. The song "Yes, Jesus Loves Me." I thought, "Man, bookends of her life."
Clearly, Jesus was part of the life of this legendary performer whose singular way with a song brought people to call her simply "The Voice." But the effusive tributes and the flashbacks of Whitney's unforgettable musical mountaintops are punctuated with the disturbing images of her personal life spinning tragically out of control. Her "turbulent marriage" they said, her battles with admitted drug addiction, and then the troubling pictures of a beautiful woman in disarray and decline.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Dark Crossroads."
Now, according to Whitney's own public statements and numerous reports from the news and personal friends, things went very wrong in a life that lit up stages around the world. And none of us knows what went on in the heart and soul of this tormented diva, of course. What we can know is what's going on in our own, in light of the life and loss of Whitney Houston. The big question that comes to me as I sort through this sadness is, "Where do you turn when you hit the dark crossroads?"
We all get there. It's that point of desperation where the hurt is so great and the answers so few, and you've got to decide where to turn. Many roads lead to that crossroads: a marriage that promised happiness but it's just delivering hurt, a soul-ripping tragedy, bad news from the doctor or from the boss, the betrayal, the breakup, the broken heart.
At the dark crossroads, you've got to choose which way you will go - toward the darkness or toward the light. You choose the darkness when you go to the drugs and the drinking, a sexual affair or sexual fantasies for relief, a "solution" that isn't one. It only creates more problems. It's darkness when you descend into the pit of harbored bitterness, or anger, or self-pity. Emotional cancer, that's what it is, and it doesn't do anything to the person who hurt you, but it slowly destroys you.
I've found that there's one choice that you make at the dark crossroads that is the difference between hope and despair, between a healed heart and a hard heart, between being free or being shackled, between character-growing choices or life-scarring mistakes. It's what you do with Jesus at the dark crossroads.
Some people find Jesus when everything else has failed them. But sadly, some people walk away from Him, thus abandoning the only hope of finding meaning and strength in the trouble. No one stays in the same place with Jesus when the tsunami hits. You end up either closer to Him or farther from Him. You choose.
See, God's posted a sign at the dark crossroads. It's our word for today from the Word of God in Deuteronomy 30:19-20. It says, "I have set before you life and death...Now choose life, so that you and your children may live...the Lord is your life." Jesus illuminated the two directions when He contrasted the devil's plans for you with His plans, "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they might have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10).
The song is so right, "Jesus loves me." And the one Whitney sang as a girl, "Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right." Especially if that talk is to tell Him, "Jesus, I need Your love; that love You showed when You poured out Your life for my sin on that cross. So Jesus, I'm Yours...all Yours." You can have a Jesus-upbringing, Jesus-beliefs, Jesus-words and still not know Jesus.
But that dark crossroads is where so many have come to know Him; out of answers, ready for a Savior, ready to give it all to the Man who gave up everything to rescue them. And He promises that "whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
I invite you today, maybe at your dark crossroads, to grab onto the One who said, "I will be for you the light of your life." We'd love to help you be sure you belong to Him; know how to begin that relationship. Visit us at YoursForLife.net. Because it is often at the dark crossroads where the Light finally comes on.