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Max Lucado Daily: God So Loved Us
“If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11, NKJV
Jesus humbled himself. He went from commanding angels to sleeping in the straw. From holding stars to clutching Mary’s finger. The palm that held the universe took the nail of a soldier.
Why? Because that’s what love does. It puts the beloved before itself.
Ecclesiastes 12
Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
“I find no pleasure in them”—
2 before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;
3 when the keepers of the house tremble,
and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
and those looking through the windows grow dim;
4 when the doors to the street are closed
and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
but all their songs grow faint;
5 when people are afraid of heights
and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
and the grasshopper drags itself along
and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home
and mourners go about the streets.
6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,
and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
and the wheel broken at the well,
7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.[c]
“Everything is meaningless! ”
The Conclusion of the Matter
9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails —given by one shepherd.[d] 12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Romans 5:12-21
Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ
12 Sin entered the world because one man sinned. And death came because of sin. Everyone sinned, so death came to all people.
13 Before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not judged when there is no law. 14 Death ruled from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. Death ruled even over those who did not sin as Adam did. He broke God's command. But he also became a pattern of the One who was going to come.
15 God's gift is different from Adam's sin. Many people died because of the sin of that one man. But it was even more sure that God's grace would also come through one man. That man is Jesus Christ. God's gift of grace was more than enough for the whole world.
16 The result of God's gift is different from the result of Adam's sin. God judged one sin. That brought guilt. But after many sins, God's gift made people right with him.
17 One man sinned, and death ruled because of his sin. But we are even more sure of what will happen because of what the one man, Jesus Christ, has done. Those who receive the rich supply of God's grace will rule with Christ in his kingdom. They have received God's gift and have been made right with him.
18 One man's sin brought guilt to all people. So also one right act made all people right with God. And all who are right with God will live. 19 Many people were made sinners because one man did not obey. But one man did obey. That is why many people will be made right with God.
20 The law was given so that sin would increase. But where sin increased, God's grace increased even more. 21 Sin ruled because of death. So also grace rules in the lives of those who are right with God. The grace of God brings eternal life because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done.
Faulty Thinking
May 31, 2012 — by Anne Cetas
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. —Romans 5:8
Four people—a pilot, a professor, a pastor, and a hiker—were flying in a small plane when the engines died. The pilot said, “There are only three parachutes. Since this is my plane, I’m taking one of them.” He put it on and jumped out. The professor said, “I’m brilliant and the world needs me, so I’m taking a parachute,” and he jumped out.
Then the pastor told the hiker, “I don’t want to be selfish, so you take the last parachute.” The hiker replied, “There are still two left, so we can each have one. The professor jumped out with my backpack instead of the parachute!” Though the professor thought he would land safely, his assurance was based on faulty thinking.
Some people have an assurance of salvation based on faulty thinking. They believe that church attendance, baptism, or just being good will gain them approval from God. But our thinking is faulty if it isn’t based on what God says in His Word. God says that “all have sinned” and that we are His enemies. But through the death and resurrection of His Son, we can be made right with God (Rom. 3:23; 5:8-10). By faith in what Christ has done, we can have peace with God (5:1) and the assurance of eternal life in heaven.
Do you believe it? Your eternity is at stake. Don’t trust faulty thinking but put your faith in Christ.
I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus—
Trusting only Thee;
Trusting Thee for full salvation,
Great and free. —Havergal
If we could earn our salvation, Christ would not have died to provide it.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 31, 2012
Put God First
Jesus did not commit Himself to them . . .for He knew what was in man —John 2:24-25
Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be— absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God.
Put God’s Will First. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9).
A person’s obedience is to what he sees to be a need— our Lord’s obedience was to the will of His Father. The rallying cry today is, “We must get to work! The heathen are dying without God. We must go and tell them about Him.” But we must first make sure that God’s “needs” and His will in us personally are being met. Jesus said, “. . . tarry . . . until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The purpose of our Christian training is to get us into the right relationship to the “needs” of God and His will. Once God’s “needs” in us have been met, He will open the way for us to accomplish His will, meeting His “needs” elsewhere.
Put God’s Son First. “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matthew 18:5).
God came as a baby, giving and entrusting Himself to me. He expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.” Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transformed by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God’s ultimate purpose is that His Son might be exhibited in me.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Leave the Choice To the Owner - #6624
Thursday, May 31, 2012
It's the issue that may decide who's the senator or congressman in many states. It may decide who the governor is in some states. The battle lines are drawn around the issue of abortion.
Oh, it's not taxes, or defense spending, or civil rights, or homelessness. The most emotional issue oftentimes in our country revolves around that new life that some woman carries inside of her right now. Oh, there's been demonstrating, banners, chants, and slogans. But underneath it all there are actually two logics that war with each other. Pro-life says that a human life is there from conception and no one has the right to destroy that life. And then the pro-choice people say that the person whose body it is should decide what is done with that body. Well, actually, in a sense they're both right.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Leave the Choice To the Owner."
Our word for today from the Word of God: 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. "Flee from sexual immorality..." God here says, "...all other sins that man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you; whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body."
Well, this passage settles once and for all the issue of whose body you're walking around in. That's not your body; "you are not your own" the Bible says. You have been made by God, so you are His by creation. You've been paid for by God with the purchase price of His own Son on the cross, so you've been purchased by Him.
Now, the pro-choice advocates use this logic: the person whose body it is should decide what is done with it. Well, I do agree with that! Because, see, if that happened, we wouldn't have many abortions to decide about, because God says sexual love is reserved for the fence of marriage; it is reserved for married people committed to each other for a lifetime. And if God is the owner, and we let the owner of the body decide what we do with that body, well then there won't be any babies conceived outside of marriage. There will be very few unwanted babies.
Psalm 139 and other passages in the Bible make it very clear that from the very beginning God initiates a new life at conception, and He reserves the right to end any life that He starts, but only the one who starts the life has that right - the creator, the purchaser. And His choice for your body is that it remain pure. It's not yours to mess around with. His choice for that body that is His really, is that sex be kept special; that you don't flirt with sexual sin by seeing how far you can go; first base, second base, third base as the teenagers say. And then quickly try to throw the transmission into reverse just as you get to the edge so you can remain a technical virgin.
No, you don't do that with God's body. When we use sex outside the boundaries of marriage, we start a chain reaction of guilt, loss of respect, loss of intimacy, future relationships, and ugly choices.
Our body - our life - belongs to Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "You were created by Him and for Him." He made us; He paid for us with His life. We leave the choices about our body, about our future to Him. But you see, we haven't lived that way. And someone may be listening right now and saying, "Ron, if I had it to do over again, I would do it very differently." We all bear the guilt and the shame of the places we have done it other than God's way. And the good news is that while God hates the sin that we do, He so loves us, the sinners. The Bible says that, "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners." He died for you.
This could be a day when everything you've ever wished you could ever get rid of, you could leave at His cross - a new beginning. You might have started listening dirty, but by the end of this day you'll be clean, because you've been forgiven by the One who died for everything you've ever done. Yes, even that thing. Why don't you tell Him today, "Jesus, I want to belong to you. Forgive me. You died for me; I'm yours."
Go to our website YoursForLife.net. You'll find some great spiritual encouragement there for a time like this. Let this be the day that you're clean.