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Max Lucado Daily: A Love That Never Fails
A love that never fails! Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Has human love ever failed you? I’m guessing your answer may be, “Yes it has—more times than I like to admit!” I Corinthians 13:8 promises that “love never fails!” Not God’s kind of love anyway.
I sense you may be so thirsty for this type of love. Those who should have loved you, did not. Those who could have loved you, didn’t. You were left at the hospital. Left at the altar. Left with an empty bed. Left with a broken heart. Left with your question, “Does anybody love me?”
Listen to heaven’s answer: God loves you—with a love that never fails. Personally. Powerfully. Passionately. God loves you with unfailing love!
And His love, if you’ll let it, can fill you! Come thirsty, my friend, and drink deeply!
From Come Thirsty
Acts 21:1-17
New International Version (NIV)
On to Jerusalem
21 After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2 We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. 3 After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. 4 We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5 When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6 After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
7 We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day. 8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”
12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
15 After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.
Paul’s Arrival at Jerusalem
17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Chronicles 26:3-15
3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem. 4 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. 5 He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear[a] of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success.
6 He went to war against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod. He then rebuilt towns near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. 7 God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal and against the Meunites. 8 The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the border of Egypt, because he had become very powerful.
9 Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the angle of the wall, and he fortified them. 10 He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, because he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain. He had people working his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.
11 Uzziah had a well-trained army, ready to go out by divisions according to their numbers as mustered by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the royal officials. 12 The total number of family leaders over the fighting men was 2,600. 13 Under their command was an army of 307,500 men trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies. 14 Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows and slingstones for the entire army. 15 In Jerusalem he made devices invented for use on the towers and on the corner defenses so that soldiers could shoot arrows and hurl large stones from the walls. His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful.
The Tragic Flaw
May 30, 2013 — by David C. McCasland
His fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong. —2 Chronicles 26:15
In literature, a tragic flaw is a character trait that causes the downfall of a story’s hero. That was true of Uzziah, who was crowned king of Judah at age 16. For many years, he sought the Lord; and while he did, God gave him great success (2 Chron. 26:4-5). But things changed when “his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong. But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction” (vv.15-16).
Uzziah entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar (v.16), openly defying God’s decree. Perhaps pride convinced him that God’s rules applied to everyone except him. When Uzziah raged against the priests who told him this was not right, the Lord struck him with leprosy (vv.18-20).
In literature and in life, how often we see a person of good reputation fall from honor into disgrace and suffering. “King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, . . . cut off from the house of the Lord” (v.21).
The only way we can prevent the nectar of praise from becoming the poison of pride is by following the Lord with a humble heart.
Humility’s a slippery prize
That seldom can be won;
We’re only humble in God’s eyes
When serving like His Son. —Gustafson
The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives. —Proverbs 27:21 NIV
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 30, 2013
“Yes— But . . .!”
Lord, I will follow You, but . . . —Luke 9:61
Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about . . . ?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Not Until You Need It - #6884
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Sometimes I wish it were in my power to get every church youth group in America to go on a missions' trip. Something unusual happens when some all-American kids suddenly get plunged into another culture to do some work in Jesus' name. It does something for the people they go to help, but I think it does more for the kids who are doing the helping. I heard a local youth group report on their trip to Mexico. Basically they had all of their support stripped away from them while they were there. It was a language they weren't accustomed to, the money was different, they didn't have the comforts they were used to, they had some spiders hanging over them as they slept at night which they for the most part don't have at home. They had unfamiliar food. The customs were things they weren't used to.
The result on these mission trips is pretty predictable. All of a sudden, kids who never have devotions are up early in the morning on a rock with a Bible somewhere. Kids who have always thought prayer was boring are saying, "Let's pray!" What they learn several thousand miles from home is something you may need to learn right where you are today.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Not Until You Need It."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 5:6. You might recognize this as being in what's called The Beatitudes, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." I think Jesus is describing spiritual health here in terms similar to what we do when we talk about physical health-appetite. How's your appetite? And He is talking about people who say, "I'm hungry for the Lord; I'm thirsty for the Lord. I need more of You, Lord. I need You!"
Those kids on that missionary trip are learning a valuable lesson. With all of their usual dependencies stripped away, they find out that you know the Lord when you need the Lord. Maybe that's why third-world Christians have so much more power in their lives, and have so much more revival in their experience than we do. They don't have all of the props we do, and it seems that those who know the Lord the best are those who need Him the most.
We dig deeply into the Lord when the bottom drops out. I'm sure you have. I have. And then, once things have stabilized, we tend to return to our old props. We tend to return to a casual Christianity instead of this desperately dependant but very rich faith. The fact is we desperately need the Lord every day, not just when the bottom drops out. We're as needy as the people in the third world. We shouldn't be confused because we've got recordings, and movies, and concerts, and websites, and church services, and homes and all these other support structures. We just don't cling to Him because we're surrounded by so many other resources.
Do we have to wait for all our resources to be stripped away before we learn how much we need our Lord? Do we have to be starving to death before we get to be hungry for more of Him? "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will be filled." See what we're missing because we haven't acknowledged how much we need Him?
Even now, why don't you ask the Lord (it's kind of a strange prayer), "Lord, make me desperate for You." He'd rather do it without trauma and without tragedy. Ask Him to give you a new hour-by-hour sense of your desperate need for Him; an hour-by-hour dependency; the child on his Heavenly Father. And then live today as if God is your only hope, not just one of your many resources. When you need the Lord desperately, you get to know Him deeply.
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