Max Lucado Daily: Your Mess Can Be Your Message
I like the conversation Bob Benson recounts in his book, See You at the House, about his friend who'd had a heart attack. For a while it seemed his friend wouldn't make it. But he recovered.
Months later Bob asked him, "How did you like your heart attack?"
"It scared me to death, almost."
"Would you do it again?"
"No!"
"Would you recommend it?" Bob asked.
"Definitely not."
Then Bob asked him, "Does your life mean more to you now than it did before?"
"Well, yes."
"You and your wife always had a beautiful marriage, but are you closer now than ever?" "Yes."
"Do you have a new compassion for people-a deeper understanding and sympathy?"
"Yes, I do."
"Do you know the Lord in a richer fellowship than you'd ever realized?"
"Yes."
Then Bob said, "So, how'd you like your heart attack?"
Deuteronomy 11:2 reminds us to remember what you've learned about the Lord through your experience with Him. Do that, my friend, and your mess will become your message!
From You'll Get Through This
Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.
7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”
8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
9 Happy is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 16:1-5
Send lambs as tribute
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, across the desert,
to the mount of Daughter Zion.
2 Like fluttering birds
pushed from the nest,
so are the women of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.
3 “Make up your mind,” Moab says.
“Render a decision.
Make your shadow like night—
at high noon.
Hide the fugitives,
do not betray the refugees.
4 Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;
be their shelter from the destroyer.”
The oppressor will come to an end,
and destruction will cease;
the aggressor will vanish from the land.
5 In love a throne will be established;
in faithfulness a man will sit on it—
one from the house[a] of David—
one who in judging seeks justice
and speeds the cause of righteousness.
Footnotes:
Isaiah 16:5 Hebrew tent
Fire And Rain
September 27, 2013 — by Julie Ackerman Link
In mercy the throne will be established; and One will sit on it in truth . . . judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness. —Isaiah 16:5
When a wildfire raged through the beautiful canyons near Colorado Springs, Colorado, it destroyed the habitat of all kinds of wildlife and hundreds of homes. People across the nation cried out to God, pleading with Him to send rain to douse the flames, put an end to the destruction, and give firefighters relief. Some people’s prayers had an interesting condition attached to them. They asked God to show mercy and send rain without lightning, which they feared would start even more fires.
This reminds me of how we live in tension between things that save us and kill us. With fire, we cook our food and keep warm, but in it we can be consumed. With water, we keep our bodies hydrated and our planet cooled, but in it we also can drown. Too much or too little of either is life-threatening.
We see the same principle at work spiritually. To thrive, civilizations need the seemingly opposite qualities of mercy and justice (Zech. 7:9). Jesus scolded the Pharisees for being sticklers about the law but neglecting these “weightier matters” (Matt. 23:23).
We may lean toward justice or mercy, but Jesus keeps them in perfect balance (Isa. 16:5; 42:1-4). His death satisfies God’s need for justice and our need for mercy.
Father, for personal reasons I sometimes lean toward
showing mercy, and sometimes I just want justice now.
Teach me the balance as I look at Your character and
give me the wisdom I need in specific situations.
God’s justice and mercy met at the cross.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 27, 2013
The “Go” of Renunciation
. . . someone said to Him, ’Lord, I will follow You wherever You go’ —Luke 9:57
Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, “for He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). We would have said, “I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!” Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of “what was in man.” If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.
Luke 9:58 . These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, “. . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Luke 9:59 . This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.
Luke 9:61 . The person who says, “Lord, I will follow You, but . . .,” is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Unsinkable No Matter What - #6970
Friday, September 27, 2013
Folks have just kept burying Tim Tebow, but he keeps coming back. A while back, the likeable but controversial quarterback was summarily cut by the New York Jets. And for a while no other NFL team signed him. Game over. Then Bingo! Suddenly he was signed by the New England Patriots. Now, he still had to earn a spot on the team, but once again, the Comeback Kid had come back.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unsinkable No Matter What."
Now, I'm no football talent scout. But I do know a guy who's an un-Titanic when I see one. What's that? Well, that's someone who's truly unsinkable. And I saw that unsinkability again during Tebow's roller coaster ride in football. And I've seen what it takes to be the thermostat that sets the temperature; not the thermometer that rises and falls with the circumstances.
First, no whining, victim-think, self-pity, blaming - they're all guaranteed to sink you and to diminish you. At no time was there any of that - no matter the dark clouds. Like the Bible says, "Do everything without complaining...shine like stars" (Philippians 2:16). There was no trash talk about the team that cut him. He said, "It was a learning opportunity for me. There was a lot that I'll take from it and a lot of relationships that I've built."
And then here's another key to unsinkability: dwell on the good stuff. Actually Tim Tebow found some meaning, some purpose in his stormy time with the Jets by looking at what he gained, not just what he lost. That's good glasses to look through. Oh, and there's something else - don't stand still. Keep pushing yourself to be stronger and better. Even when - well maybe especially when there seems to be no immediate incentive. If life quits on you, don't you quit on life.
They say Tim Tebow used his downtime to sharpen his passing game. No sitting, moping or resting on his pretty impressive laurels. Nope. Use life's "sidelinings" to get better than you've ever been. Go with the Bible's advice; that word for today from the Word of God in Ecclesiastes 7:14, "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider; God has made the one as well as the other."
So no cruise control; just full speed ahead as a parent, a spouse, educationally, or professionally. Figure out where there's room for improvement and do whatever it takes to turn a weakness into strength. Oh yeah, and then there's that pride thing. Don't be full of yourself. Up or down, you hear Tim Tebow talking about always learning, always improving. And he always seems to have time for the hurting, the little guys. The rare kind of guy who makes you feel like you're the important person, not him. That's the kind of person you want to be around, whether they're winning or losing.
There's a lot of talk about sports figures being role models, and Tim Tebow's one. Showing us how you can be unsinkable, even when life stinks, because you're not controlled by your environment. You're controlled by your in-vironment. And sometimes looking at a guy who does life with poise and grace makes you look at yourself and say, "I'm not handling my roller coaster so well am I?"
The disappointments, the defeats, the disasters - they don't cause our dark side. They expose it. And that's a good thing if it makes us want to change. Maybe to even say that life-changing word we don't like to say, "Help!" Tim Tebow's done that. See, he quarterbacks football teams but not his life. He's made it very clear that he's left calling the signals to Jesus. So have I, because I can trust Him more than I can trust me. Oh, I've tried running things and I haven't liked the outcomes, the hurt I've caused, the messes I've made.
Fact is, we weren't meant to quarterback our life. The Bible's says, I was "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). But while I'm perfectly willing to let God run the universe, I'll run me, thank You." Which means I'm living with my back turned to the One I was made by and made for.
I'd never have found my way to God if it hadn't been for Jesus. It says "He died for sinners that He might bring us safely home to God" (1 Peter 3:18). That's how I know He loves me; how I knew I could trust Him, and so can you. This One who calls my plays beat the opponent that's beaten everyone else - death. I'm unsinkable because He is. I belong to Him. If you're not sure you do, would you join me at our website so we can get together on that? ANewStory.com.
Jesus changes lives. Jesus changes people. Jesus changes eternities.
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