(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)
Max Lucado Daily: A Worship-Hungry Heart
Parents, what are your children and others learning from your worship? Do they see the same excitement as when you go to a basketball game? Do they see you prepare for worship as you do for a vacation? Do they see you hungry to arrive, seeking the face of the Father? Or are others seeking the face of the Father while you’re seeking the face of your wristwatch? Do they see you content to leave the way you came? They are watching. Believe me. They are watching.
Do you come to church with a worship-hungry heart? Our Savior did. May I urge you to be just like Jesus? Prepare your heart for worship. Let God change your face through worship. Your heartfelt worship is a missionary appeal. Let others hear the passion of your voice as they see the sincerity in your face, and they may be changed. I know you will be!
From Just Like Jesus
Isaiah 16
16 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[e] of David—
one who in judging seeks justice
and speeds the cause of righteousness.
6 We have heard of Moab’s pride—
how great is her arrogance!—
of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;
but her boasts are empty.
7 Therefore the Moabites wail,
they wail together for Moab.
Lament and grieve
for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.
8 The fields of Heshbon wither,
the vines of Sibmah also.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled down the choicest vines,
which once reached Jazer
and spread toward the desert.
Their shoots spread out
and went as far as the sea.[f]
9 So I weep, as Jazer weeps,
for the vines of Sibmah.
Heshbon and Elealeh,
I drench you with tears!
The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit
and over your harvests have been stilled.
10 Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;
no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;
no one treads out wine at the presses,
for I have put an end to the shouting.
11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.
12 When Moab appears at her high place,
she only wears herself out;
when she goes to her shrine to pray,
it is to no avail.
13 This is the word the Lord has already spoken concerning Moab. 14 But now the Lord says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 11:32-44
32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[a] in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Giving Thanks
February 26, 2013 — by Julie Ackerman Link
A tragedy left a family with a void that nothing could fill. A toddler chasing a cat wandered into the road and was run over by a delivery truck. A 4-year-old watched in shocked silence as her parents cradled the lifeless body of her little sister. For years, the cold emptiness of that moment encased the family in sadness. Feelings were frozen. The only comfort was numbness. Relief was unimaginable.
Author Ann Voskamp was the 4-year-old, and the sorrow surrounding her sister’s death formed her view of life and God. The world she grew up in had little concept of grace. Joy was an idea that had no basis in reality.
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| Ann Voskamp |
As a young mother, Voskamp set out to discover the elusive thing the Bible calls joy. The words for joy and grace come from the Greek word chairo, which she found out is at the center of the Greek word for thanksgiving. Could it be that simple? she wondered. To test her discovery, Voskamp decided to give thanks for 1,000 gifts she already had. She started slowly but soon gratefulness was flowing freely.
Just as Jesus gave thanks before, not after, raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41), Voskamp discovered that giving thanks brought to life feelings of joy that had died along with her sister. Joy comes from thanksgiving.
Lord, I thank You that You have the power
to raise the dead. May the feelings of joy
that arise from our thanksgiving be seeds of
grace to those who are afraid to feel.
The joy of living comes from a heart of thanksgiving.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
February 26, 2013
Our Misgivings About Jesus
The woman said to Him, ’Sir, You have nothing to draw [water] with, and the well is deep’ —John 4:11
Have you ever said to yourself, “I am impressed with the wonderful truths of God’s Word, but He can’t really expect me to live up to that and work all those details into my life!” When it comes to confronting Jesus Christ on the basis of His qualities and abilities, our attitudes reflect religious superiority. We think His ideals are lofty and they impress us, but we believe He is not in touch with reality— that what He says cannot actually be done. Each of us thinks this about Jesus in one area of our life or another. These doubts or misgivings about Jesus begin as we consider questions that divert our focus away from God. While we talk of our dealings with Him, others ask us, “Where are you going to get enough money to live? How will you live and who will take care of you?” Or our misgivings begin within ourselves when we tell Jesus that our circumstances are just a little too difficult for Him. We say, “It’s easy to say, ’Trust in the Lord,’ but a person has to live; and besides, Jesus has nothing with which to draw water— no means to be able to give us these things.” And beware of exhibiting religious deceit by saying, “Oh, I have no misgivings about Jesus, only misgivings about myself.” If we are honest, we will admit that we never have misgivings or doubts about ourselves, because we know exactly what we are capable or incapable of doing. But we do have misgivings about Jesus. And our pride is hurt even at the thought that He can do what we can’t.
My misgivings arise from the fact that I search within to find how He will do what He says. My doubts spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, I should bring them into the light and confess them openly— “Lord, I have had misgivings about You. I have not believed in Your abilities, but only my own. And I have not believed in Your almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.”
When Conquerors Wimp Out - #6817
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
It actually starts while men are still boys, "I'll beat you!" It's that innate desire in a male to compete, to conquer, to win. A girl is a conquest, a game is a conquest, a career or a business is a conquest. In Spanish, men were called conquistadors! Give them a challenge in their field or in their interest area, and they will work hard to conquer it. Now, that's the good news. The bad news is that these conquerors retreat when the challenge happens to be in a relationship.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Conquerors Wimp Out."
Our word for today from the Word of God, Genesis chapter 16, and I'll begin reading at verse 1. Abraham and Sarah, who are called Abram and Sarai, (their names had not yet been changed) are impatient, because the baby hasn't come that God promised. "Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, 'The Lord has kept me from having children.'" Isn't it interesting how the Lord always gets blamed for things that He really didn't do. "Go sleep with my maidservant." Say what?
Well, in their culture, it was sort of okay if you didn't have a baby to have a surrogate mother. In this case, she picks her maidservant. "Perhaps I can build a family through her" she says. I should say it was okay in that culture. Nobody said it was okay with God. Listen to this part, "Abram agreed to what Sarai said." Once again I go, "Say what?" "So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she was pregnant she began to despise her mistress, and Sarai said to Abram, 'You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.'" Wait, that's curious isn't it? "I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me."
Now, notice how Abram steps up to leadership. "Your servant is in your hands, Dear. Do with her whatever you think best." Great! "Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her." This is amazing! Abraham has been a conqueror! He launched out into a pagan country by faith, he's fought for his nephew, Lot. He built a fortune, but he wimps out when it comes to family leadership. He should have said, "This is wrong! I'll handle this." Instead, he does what a lot of men do. When it comes to conflict, when it comes to confrontation, he retreats.
See, the family is the ultimate test of manhood; not the football field, not the battlefield. Abram wanted to avoid confronting the issue, to avoid conflict. And man, did he get conflict. He got war between these two women eventually. This is so typical of us men. We have the courage to conquer, but not to confront. And all the tragedy, all the war that has come from Ishmael and Isaac - could that have been avoided if he had just said, "It's wrong. I'll handle it"?
You see him trying to avoid a problem, and He creates a much bigger one: a bitter wife, an untamed son, God's silence for 13 years, centuries of conflict. Listen, if you're a man, it's not an accident you happened to tune in today. God's saying, "In your close relationships don't be afraid to confront. Don't put things off until there's a crisis. You're just creating a bigger crisis."
See, it takes yielding to the Lordship of Christ to change in this area. Ask God for the courage to confront, even when you're young, even when you're single. Deal with issues while they're small. Face the conflict; don't try to bury it.
When a conqueror on the battlefront learns to be a confronter on the home front, then he's really being a man.
