Max Lucado Daily: Grace Makes All the Difference
If life is… "because I have to"-where's the joy in that? Too often I hear folks rejecting Christ because they think the Christian life is all about rules and regulations-all about stifling and suffocating ritual.
This happens when we confuse Christ with legalism. Legalism is joyless because it's endless. There's always another class to attend. Inmates incarcerated in self-salvation find work, but never joy!
Grace! It makes all the difference. I like this quote: "Gone are the exertions of law-keeping, gone the disciplines of legalism, the anxiety that having done everything we might not have done enough. We reach the goal, not by the stairs, but by the lift-God pledges his promised righteousness to those who will stop trying to save themselves!"1
Grace offers rest. Legalism? Never!
From GRACE
2 Corinthians 9
New International Version (NIV)
9 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord’s people. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
Generosity Encouraged
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”[a]
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Corinthians 12:14-26
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,[a] yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
You’re Necessary
January 18, 2013 — by Marvin Williams
But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it. —1 Corinthians 12:24
The story has been told about a conductor who was rehearsing his orchestra. The organ was giving a beautiful melody, the drums were thundering, the trumpets were blaring, and the violins were singing beautifully. But the conductor noticed something missing—the piccolo. The piccolo player had gotten distracted and hoped his instrument wouldn’t be missed. The conductor reminded him: “Each one of us is necessary.”
This was essentially the same message Paul communicated to the Corinthian believers in his first letter to them (12:4-7). Every Christian plays an important role in the body of Christ. Paul gave a list of gifts of the Spirit and compared their use to the functioning of the various parts of the human body for the good of the whole (vv.8-10). The Corinthian believers may have had different cultural backgrounds, gifts, and personalities, but they were filled with the same Spirit and belonged to the same body of Christ. Paul made special mention of the parts of the body that were weak and obscure, and taught that all believers play a necessary and significant role. No one part was more necessary than any other.
Remember, Jesus has given you a significant part to play and will use you to build up His people.
The church, a living body, containing all the parts—
It lives, it moves, it functions, and touches many hearts;
When each part is committed to do the Savior’s will,
His members are united, His purpose they fulfill. —Fitzhugh
As a member of the body of Christ,
you are a necessary part of the whole.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 18, 2013
“It Is the Lord!”
Thomas answered and said to Him, ’My Lord and my God!’ —John 20:28
Jesus said to her, ’Give Me a drink’ ” (John 4:7). How many of us are expecting Jesus Christ to quench our thirst when we should be satisfying Him! We should be pouring out our lives, investing our total beings, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. “You shall be witnesses to Me . . .” (Acts 1:8). That means lives of pure, uncompromising, and unrestrained devotion to the Lord Jesus, which will be satisfying to Him wherever He may send us.
Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Emotional Clearasil - #6790
Friday, January 18, 2013
I think I first remember hearing about it on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. And most people listening are going, "Say what?" Yeah, we're talking the 1950s, and it was a show that most teenagers watched. And I of course, was only two at the time. But it was predictable that a teenage show was going to have as their primary advertiser a company called Clearasil.
Okay, like every kid, my pimples looked like mountains to me, so after I heard about it on American Bandstand, I tried it out. Got a tube, got another tube, and another, and I hoped it would do the job. Well, American Bandstand is long gone, but Clearasil has lived on for many years, and kids bought it for a long time. I guess as long as there are blemishes, we'll be interested in some product that removes blemishes...or better yet, a person that does.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Emotional Clearasil."
Now, how do you get a woman so she is without blemish? No, no, not give her some cream to put on. I'm not talking about physical blemishes. I'm talking more about emotional blemishes - personality blemishes. We've all got them.
Well, Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 5, beginning at verse 25, and God is giving us here a parallel between how a man treats a woman and how Christ treats His people. Oh, and guess what it mentions? Blemishes.
Here's what it says: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other" - what's this? Oh - "blemish, but holy and blameless." The message? If a man loves a woman selflessly, he'll remove her blemishes. She'll be radiant.
See, an unselfish husband is like emotional Clearasil for the woman he's married to. Every man marries an imperfect woman, and it's a good thing or he couldn't be married to her, because he's probably at least if not more imperfect. And there are things that may frustrate you about the woman in your life. She nags, she's too bossy, she's not expressive enough, maybe she's too expressive - talks too much, she's demanding, she's impatient, or she's preoccupied. Well, whatever the blemishes are, according to this scripture, you have as the Christ figure in your family, the power to change that over a period of time through your love.
See, when a woman feels like royalty, she starts to act like it. You won't change her by nagging, and yelling, ignoring her, name-calling, being harsh with her, attacking her, criticizing her. In fact, all you will probably do is delay the change. You change your wife as Christ changes us. And how does He do it? By patient, attentive, self-sacrificing, dying on a cross love. That means you listen patiently to her words and you listen to her heart. You give her prime time, not the leftovers of your time. That's the sacrifice. You praise her. You pitch in on her responsibilities. You give her some surprises. You court her. You treat her like a queen in front of other people.
See, you can tell the women who are loved that this. They're radiant! A woman blossoms in the love of a man who puts her first.