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MaxLucado.com: He Delights in You
It was a tense deacon’s meeting. Apparently there was more agitation than agreement, and after a lengthy discussion, someone suggested, “Why don’t we pray about it?”—to which another questioned: “Has it come to that?”
What causes us to think of prayer as the last option rather than the first? I can think of two reasons: feelings of independence and feelings of insignificance. We think, God doesn’t want to hear my problems. He’s got famine and the Mafia to deal with. I don’t want to trouble him with my mess.
The last thing you should worry about is being a nuisance to God. If that’s your thought, may I share with you a favorite verse of mine?
“Because He delights in me, He saved me. Psalm 18:19 ”
God can live anywhere in the universe and he chooses to live in your heart. He’s crazy about you! Why don’t you talk to him?
From A Gentle Thunder
Psalm 44[a]
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil.[b]
1 We have heard it with our ears, O God;
our ancestors have told us
what you did in their days,
in days long ago.
2 With your hand you drove out the nations
and planted our ancestors;
you crushed the peoples
and made our ancestors flourish.
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land,
nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
and the light of your face, for you loved them.
4 You are my King and my God,
who decrees[c] victories for Jacob.
5 Through you we push back our enemies;
through your name we trample our foes.
6 I put no trust in my bow,
my sword does not bring me victory;
7 but you give us victory over our enemies,
you put our adversaries to shame.
8 In God we make our boast all day long,
and we will praise your name forever.[d]
9 But now you have rejected and humbled us;
you no longer go out with our armies.
10 You made us retreat before the enemy,
and our adversaries have plundered us.
11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for a pittance,
gaining nothing from their sale.
13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations;
the peoples shake their heads at us.
15 I live in disgrace all day long,
and my face is covered with shame
16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
17 All this came upon us,
though we had not forgotten you;
we had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back;
our feet had not strayed from your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals;
you covered us over with deep darkness.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered it,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
25 We are brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Rise up and help us;
rescue us because of your unfailing love.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, 30 for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.
At Risk For The Savior
November 12, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher
Hold such men in esteem; because for the work of Christ he came close to death. —Philippians 2:29-30
Doubts about Doss would change, however, when his military unit faced combat. During the World War II Battle of Okinawa, he ducked under machine gun fire to pull the wounded to safety. He prayed, “Lord, give me the strength to save just one more wounded soldier.” Eventually he lowered more than 70 injured men down a hill for further medical attention. For his efforts, Desmond Doss was awarded the Medal of Honor—the highest honor his country could bestow.
Scripture tells of another Christian who took great personal risks to help others. Of Epaphroditus, Paul wrote, “Hold such men in esteem; because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life” (Phil. 2:29-30).
Around the world today, many believers risk their lives for the cause of Christ. Let’s pray that our God will protect them as they serve Him under threatening circumstances.
O Lord, listen to our cry for mercy; in Your faithfulness
come to the relief of those who are in danger because of
their faith. For Your name’s sake, preserve their lives;
in Your righteousness, bring them out of trouble.
Courage is not having strength to go on—it is going on when you don’t have the strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 12, 2012
The Changed Life
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new —2 Corinthians 5:17
What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is— has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above— you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.
What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 , or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Spending it All On the One He Loves - #6741
Monday, November 12, 2012
My oldest son had saved up for this baseball card show for months. He was about nine at the time, and he was already good at knowing which cards to buy; he was really a pretty sharp investor. One of his biggest frustrations was that all of my 50s vintage baseball cards, had been thrown out when we moved during my childhood, so he has never quite forgiven his grandmother for that. Imagine what they could have been worth by now! But I shared with him that when I was a kid I liked to turn in Coke bottles and get deposit money, and I'd get baseball cards with that myself.
I was trying to get the cards of all the players from the favorite team of my boyhood, the Chicago White Sox. I really wanted the whole team! Now, my hero was a star second baseman named Nellie Fox - a Hall of Famer. And wouldn't you know, I would get six or eight copies of other players, but I could never get a pack that had Nellie Fox in it. I had the entire White Sox team; I had no Nellie Fox.
Well, we got to this baseball card show, and I looked around with my youngest son for a while. We even stopped at a table that had some Nellie Fox cards that were from my era. I turned my son loose for a little while to spend the money that he had carefully saved over all those months. A few minutes later I felt a tug on my pant leg, and there was my oldest son, who was reaching up to me with something in his hand and tears in his eyes. He said, "Daddy, I know you always wanted Nellie Fox. I bought you some. I love you." I was overwhelmed! He had loved me enough to spend on me everything he had.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Spending it All On the One He Loves."
If there are three words that I had the power to tattoo on your soul for the rest of you life, it would be these words, God Loves You. I don't know what the word "love" has meant in your life. Maybe you've loved and lost. Maybe there's never been enough love.
Maybe love has meant disappointment and hurt, rejection and abandonment. Or maybe for all the love you've had, is has still never filled the hole in your heart. Well, that's because there's a love so big that only God can give it...that can alone fill the hole in your heart.
Now, our word for today from the Word of God tells us how we know He loves us. Romans 8:32 says this: "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He also with Him not freely give us all things?" Delivered up His own Son for us! There was nothing more valuable God had than His Son. How do you know how much He loves you? He spent the best He had. He spent His Son to get you back.
Why was that necessary? Well, because you and I have made the same choice about our life. We've decided we would run it instead of the God who gave us our life. He's a holy God. He governs the entire universe. We're rebels. We've set out to do it my way instead of God's way. We're fine if He runs the universe. We won't let Him run us.
The Bible says there is a death penalty; an eternal, awful, unthinkable death penalty for running our own lives, being spiritual hijackers. But instead of us paying that price, God gave His only Son. In the words of the Bible, "God loved the world so much..." (put your name there) "...God loved (yeah, you) so much that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish (not have that death penalty) but have eternal life."
Today God has sent me with that message to wherever you are so you could for the first time in your life experience the love you were made for. If you want to begin a relationship with Him, would you say, "Jesus, I believe when You died, You were dying for my sin. I am Yours."
Please, please check out our website and get there the information that will help you understand how to have this love relationship. Go to YoursForLife.net because nobody loves you like God does. No one was willing to pay the price for you that He did.