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MaxLucado.com:Christians On Message
It’s a political term to be sure. And haven’t we heard it ad nauseum over the last 18 months? Republicans attempting to stay “on message.” Democrats resolving to swing the party back “on message.” The phrase carries the idea of the central theme, the big points, the idea we exist to promote.
Avoid rabbit trails. Anchor to core values. Relentlessly promote unique ideas. Stay on message.
This morning–post-election morning–I’m wondering how we Christians are doing when it comes to staying on message? That question begs a prior one. What is our message? To ask the pundit on the internet, the Christian message is “pro-life, traditional marriage; more red than blue, more conservative than liberal.”
But is this our core message? Paddle upstream to the earliest framers of the Christian message. The story the first disciples were dying to tell was this: the grace of Jesus Christ.
“Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God’s grace….you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God…. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.” (Ephesians 2:5-10 NCV)
Behold the fruit of grace: raised by God, saved by God, seated with God. Gifted, equipped and commissioned. Grace is the word God uses to describe his radical commitment to redeem and restore to himself a people with whom he will reign forever. Grace changes everything! We are spiritually alive. Heavenly positioned. Connected to God. A billboard of mercy. An honored child. This is the “aggressive forgiveness called grace” (Rom. 5:20 MSG).
Grace declares that God knew what he was doing when he made you and is dead serious about saving you for something out of this world. Grace goes where no government can. Grace speaks to the core questions: why are we here? Where are we headed? Does anyone care? Grace gets to the bottom of this thing called life.
Grace. This is the big message of the Christian hope, the unique idea we bring to the social conversation. Let’s major in this story. Let’s unleash our clearest thoughts on this question: How can we best articulate the greatest announcement in history? “And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16 ESV)
Let’s champion the cause of the pre-born. Let’s hold to deep-seated convictions about family and the practice of faith. But let’s begin and end with the highest of all hopes: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” (Titus 2:11)
A New Heart
Society says change the outside and the inside will follow. Give a person education, the right habits, the right disciplines, and the person will be changed.
Oh, we try. Boy, do we try. We buy clothes. We seek degrees, awards, achievements. But peel away the layers, and underneath you see our true nature: a selfish, prideful, sinful heart.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless one is born again, he cannot be in God’s kingdom. John 3:3?
At our “new birth” God remakes our souls and gives us what we need. New eyes so we can see by faith. A new mind so we can have the mind of Christ. A new vision so we won’t lose heart. A new voice for praise and new hands for service. And most of all, a new heart!
From A Gentle Thunder
1 Chronicles 15
The Ark Brought to Jerusalem
15 After David had constructed buildings for himself in the City of David, he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. 2 Then David said, “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister before him forever.”
3 David assembled all Israel in Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to the place he had prepared for it. 4 He called together the descendants of Aaron and the Levites:
5 From the descendants of Kohath,
Uriel the leader and 120 relatives;
6 from the descendants of Merari,
Asaiah the leader and 220 relatives;
7 from the descendants of Gershon,[f]
Joel the leader and 130 relatives;
8 from the descendants of Elizaphan,
Shemaiah the leader and 200 relatives;
9 from the descendants of Hebron,
Eliel the leader and 80 relatives;
10 from the descendants of Uzziel,
Amminadab the leader and 112 relatives.
11 Then David summoned Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab the Levites. 12 He said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. 13 It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.” 14 So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 And the Levites carried the ark of God with the poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord.
16 David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their fellow Levites as musicians to make a joyful sound with musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.
17 So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his relatives, Asaph son of Berekiah; and from their relatives the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah; 18 and with them their relatives next in rank: Zechariah,[g] Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel,[h] the gatekeepers.
19 The musicians Heman, Asaph and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals; 20 Zechariah, Jaaziel,[i] Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah were to play the lyres according to alamoth,[j] 21 and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel and Azaziah were to play the harps, directing according to sheminith.[k] 22 Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.
23 Berekiah and Elkanah were to be doorkeepers for the ark. 24 Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer the priests were to blow trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were also to be doorkeepers for the ark.
25 So David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of units of a thousand went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom, with rejoicing. 26 Because God had helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, seven bulls and seven rams were sacrificed. 27 Now David was clothed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and as were the musicians, and Kenaniah, who was in charge of the singing of the choirs. David also wore a linen ephod. 28 So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouts, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres and harps.
29 As the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David dancing and celebrating, she despised him in her heart.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Colossians 3:8-17
8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self[a] with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,[b] free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The Legacy
November 8, 2012 — by Dave Branon
Holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. —Colossians 3:12
One day my wife called me at work and said, “Something’s going on next door. Lots of cars are there.” Because of my neighbor’s occupation, I feared the worst, and soon those fears were realized. Our neighbor, policeman Trevor Slot, had just been killed in the line of duty, trying to stop the escape of two bank robbers. Our community was stunned.
Trevor had no time to prepare for his death. Yet he was ready. His faith in Christ was secure, and his reputation as a remarkable man was intact. At his funeral, attended by hundreds of fellow officers, his colleague Detective Brandyn Heugel said, “He was a dedicated police officer, but first and foremost he was a loving husband to Kim and a doting father to Kaitlyn and Abbie.” Indeed the theme of Trevor’s tributes all centered on his great personality and his love and care for his family.
Trevor’s life exemplified the words of Colossians 3:12-13, “Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another.” Those traits leave an inspiring legacy.
We don’t know when God will call us home, but we do know this: Each day is an opportunity to leave a testimony worthy of our faith.
Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful;
May the fire of our devotion light their way;
May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey. —Mohr
Each day we add to our legacy—good or bad.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 8, 2012
The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered —Romans 8:26
We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.
“He,” the Holy Spirit in you, “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.
The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. “. . . your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit . . .” (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, “. . . He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple” (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer . . . . But you have made it a ’den of thieves’ ” (Mark 11:17).
Have we come to realize that our “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a “temple of the Holy Spirit.” He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Going Direct - #6739
Thursday, November 8, 2012
All right, what famous TV personality said these words: "I love trash." All right, Sesame Street fans, yep, Oscar the Grouch, who even lived in a trash can.
Now listen, I've got a few idiosyncrasies; not nearly as many as everybody else I know, but one of those is that it's very important to me that my trash gets picked up once a week. I try to be faithful in getting it out to the street like I'm supposed to on the day it's supposed to be there. What if the trash man doesn't come one week? What if he didn't come for two weeks? What should I do about that?
What if my approach to that problem were to go and tell all my neighbors, "My trash wasn't picked up!" Oh, and then the guy that delivers the mail; he comes up and I say, "Do you know what? That trash man didn't come and pick up my trash!" And I call my pastor and say, "Pastor, I'm not getting my trash picked up!" And the checkout girl while I'm at the grocery store; you know, she should know about this too. Oh, and when I get gas, you know what? I'm going to tell the guy at the gas station. "That guy didn't pick up my trash!"
You'd say, "Ron, aren't you missing a pretty obvious step here?" Well, yeah. I forgot to talk to the only person who can explain why it's not there; I didn't talk to the only person who can change it-the trash man. You say, "Ron, that's stupid." Yeah, but I've just described our standard procedure for handling problems between Christians.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Going Direct."
Okay, our word for today from the Word of God about going direct is found in Matthew 5:21-24. You may recognize this as coming from The Sermon on The Mount and Jesus is speaking. "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,' and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."
Now, what Jesus is saying here basically is, "Don't come to Me until you've talked to your brother." That's interesting isn't it? He says, "Even though you're bringing a sacrifice in your hands, which is the holiest thing that a Jew could do at that time, even though you're coming to worship Me, you and I don't have much to talk about until you've gotten that conflict-that tension-squared away with your brother."
You remember what I said about telling everyone about the trash man and my problem with him? That's really how we handle problems with each other. We go talk to everybody else about it except the person there's the problem with. We take all sorts of evasive action to avoid confronting someone. Oh, we're subtle about it, we ask for prayer, "Lord, you know...", "Please pray for me will you?", "Ask the Lord about this." And of course we get into sanctified gossip with our prayer requests sometimes, or we just unload it on our friends. We complain, we keep score, we sputter that he should know better. Have you talked to the person who has hurt you? Have you talked to the person maybe that you have hurt?
You say, "Well, if they'll make the first move." Jesus doesn't say that. He says, "You make the first move." You'll be surprised - if you'll just talk to them - by the reasons for their actions. Maybe you have totally misinterpreted their actions. It may clear up all kinds of misunderstanding; it could get rid of the growing cancer of bitterness inside of you. Even if they don't respond, you have dealt with the bitterness and anger that the Bible says causes you to forfeit the grace of God. And most of all, even if it doesn't resolve the relationship, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you've done it Jesus' way. You have obeyed.
One of the most disobeyed commandments of Jesus is to settle it with your brother. I think we ought to be asking each other, when someone comes to us with a problem about another person, "Have you talked to them? Have you talked to the real person involved?" Because when it comes to healing broken relationships, don't go to any more outsiders. Go direct!