MaxLucado.com: Do You Trust Him?
The sky is dark. Sudden waves of water tilt up our sailing vessel until we see nothing but sky and then downward until we see nothing but blue. I learned this about sailing: there is nothing swell about a swell!
Eyes turned first to the thunderclouds, then to the captain. We looked to him. He was deliberate and decisive. He told some of us where to sit, others what to do, and all of us to hang on. And we did what he said. Why? We knew he knew best.
Such winds test our trust in the Captain. Does God know what he’s doing? Why did he allow the storm? The conditions worsen, and his instructions perplex. How do you respond? Can you say about God what I said about our captain?
I know God knows what’s best. I know I don’t. I know he cares. Do you trust him?
“Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 9:10?
From Come Thirsty
2 Kings 4
The Widow’s Olive Oil
4 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
The Shunammite’s Son Restored to Life
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”
11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”
She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”
14 “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”
15 Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!”
His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
22 She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”
23 “Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.”
“That’s all right,” she said.
24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.” 25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”
“Everything is all right,” she said.
27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”
28 “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
30 But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.
31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” 37 She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
Death in the Pot
38 Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.”
39 One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. 40 The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
41 Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Feeding of a Hundred
42 A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
43 “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.
But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over. ’” 44 Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 26:57-64
Jesus Before the Sanhedrin
57 Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. 58 But Peter followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.
59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.
Finally two came forward 61 and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”
62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent.
The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
64 “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”[a]
When Not To Witness
June 22, 2012 — by Randy Kilgore
Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “. . . Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” —Matthew 26:63
Here in New England where I live, baseball is a near-religious pursuit. Even if it were against the law to talk about the Boston Red Sox while at work, the fans couldn’t stop—they love their team that much.
That raises a question in my mind for Christians: Are there times when a Christian shouldn’t talk about God? I think so. In the face of insincere challenges to our faith, silence may often be the best response. In the hostile situation of Jesus’ exchange with Caiaphas, He chose silence at first (Matt. 26:63). He understood that Caiaphas wasn’t interested in the truth (v.59). While we don’t always know another’s heart, we must be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit in every situation that we “may know how [we] ought to answer each one” (Col. 4:6).
Also, if an answer to a question will move the discussion down a rabbit trail and away from Christ, we might want to stop the conversation and pick it up another day.
Are there other times when silence may be best? If talking about faith distracts us or co-workers from performing our job, we should stay focused on our work. Or if someone has shown a continual resistance, we might choose to stop pressing them. Remember, we can be a witness of God’s grace with our conduct as well (1 Peter 3:1-2).
Dear Lord, we want to be a testimony for You.
Give us wisdom to know when to speak or not speak,
and what to say or not say. Thank You, Holy Spirit,
for Your direction today.
Silence can be one tool in evangelism.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
June 22, 2012
The Unchanging Law of Judgment
With what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you —Matthew 7:2
This statement is not some haphazard theory, but it is an eternal law of God. Whatever judgment you give will be the very way you are judged. There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. Jesus said that the basis of life is retribution— “with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” If you have been shrewd in finding out the shortcomings of others, remember that will be exactly how you will be measured. The way you pay is the way life will pay you back. This eternal law works from God’s throne down to us (see Psalm 18:25-26).
Romans 2:1 applies it in even a more definite way by saying that the one who criticizes another is guilty of the very same thing. God looks not only at the act itself, but also at the possibility of committing it, which He sees by looking at our hearts. To begin with, we do not believe the statements of the Bible. For instance, do we really believe the statement that says we criticize in others the very things we are guilty of ourselves? The reason we see hypocrisy, deceit, and a lack of genuineness in others is that they are all in our own hearts. The greatest characteristic of a saint is humility, as evidenced by being able to say honestly and humbly, “Yes, all those, as well as other evils, would have been exhibited in me if it were not for the grace of God. Therefore, I have no right to judge.”
Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1). He went on to say, in effect, “If you do judge, you will be judged in exactly the same way.” Who of us would dare to stand before God and say, “My God, judge me as I have judged others”? We have judged others as sinners— if God should judge us in the same way, we would be condemned to hell. Yet God judges us on the basis of the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Hard Rescues - #6640
Friday, June 22, 2012
I have a lot of respect for lifeguards at the ocean. I mean, first of all, I wish I could swim like they do; they make what I do look like dog paddling for sure. But I have seen them in action. I remember being at the New Jersey shore and watching five lifeguards go to work on a rescue to bring in three children. And I think I have a new appreciation for these guys and girls having talked to my friend, Jim, because he used to be one on the other side of the country; he was a Pacific Ocean lifeguard. He described to me the different kinds of rescues that there are.
For example, what do you do when there's someone who is panicky and hanging onto you for dear life and almost going to take you down? Well, lifeguards are trained a certain way to handle that. And then there's one that they call "the hard rescue" and for good reason. But you don't have to be in the ocean to be a candidate for some strong treatment from The Lifesaver.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hard Rescues."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is about a hard rescue, and it's in Genesis 19 - I'm going to begin reading at verse 14. It comes out of the story of the life of Abraham's nephew, Lot. Maybe you remember that Lot had gotten stuck in Sodom, that sinful city that God was about to destroy, and not only had he moved into Sodom, but well, Sodom had moved into him. And the angels of the Lord had come and said, "Lot, you need to get out of here and get everybody you love, because Abraham has prayed to get you out of here."
Well, here's where we pick up the story: "So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who had pledged to marry his daughters. He said, 'Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city.' But his sons-in-law thought he was joking." What? Yeah, isn't it interesting that when you get compromised as a believer, your credibility is shot when you try to warn anybody?
"With the coming of dawn," it said, "the angels urged Lot saying, 'Hurry, take your wife and your two daughters who are here or you will be swept away when the city is punished." And he hesitated! So the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them out of the city."
Lot literally had to be pulled out of the city of Sodom, where if he had stayed he would have been destroyed. Lot was about to die, but he was hesitant to go with the Lord. Sounds a little bit like the hard rescues that my lifeguard buddy, Jim, described to me. He said, "When you have a man who thinks he can handle it; he doesn't even think he's drowning, he won't admit he's drowning, he keeps fighting and he's going down for the third time. He's going to die if you don't rescue him. And Jim said those lifeguards were trained to literally punch him and knock him out; not because they wanted to be violent, but to save his life. Knock him out to save him.
Has it ever occurred to you that, well, maybe you, like Lot, might be a hard rescue? You're on a destructive road right now, but you refuse to admit that you're going down for the third time. You say, "Hey! Hey, I can handle it." But you can't! You're not supposed to handle it. The Lord has been trying to bring you to the cross where Christ died for you, or maybe you've been there but you're a Christian who's rebelling; you're living outside of His best. It's not the church you're rebelling against, it's not your parents, it's not some other Christians who hurt you or disillusioned you.
It's Jesus Himself, and the most loving thing God can do is to bring you home like a lifeguard. He's called to you, He's brought people into your life to bring you back, He's allowed you to be frustrated in your lifestyle, He's reminded you and you've said, "God, leave me alone!" Well, if God doesn't do something drastic, you may be lost forever.
And so perhaps He has brought things into your life that have been there to get your attention, to give you a little pain now so you can be rescued from the pain of a Christ-less eternity. Would you let the lifeguard save you? He died to do it! Grab Him with everything you've got. Let down your guard and let Him bring you home safely.
Listen, if you want to know how to do that, you want to know more about this relationship with Him, do what many have done. Go to our website. It's YoursForLife.net. See, I'm hoping maybe today we got there before God's loving knock-out. Don't force Him to escalate His rescue efforts. There's no peace, there's no rest, there's no fulfillment until you collapse into His arms. Let Him carry you safely home. Don't be a hard rescue!
