Max Lucado Daily:
His Unchanging Character
We pass much of life at mid-altitude. Most of life is Monday-ish obligations of carpools, expense reports and recipes. Occasionally we summit a peak: our wedding, a promotion, the birth of a child. But when the housing market crashes, or test reports come back negative, before we know it, we discover what the bottom looks like!
In Psalm 139:7 David asks, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?” You’ll never go where God is not. Acts 17:27 reminds us, “He is not far from each of us.” The Psalmist determined, “When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
I’m reminded of the words of an old but familiar hymn, “When all around my soul gives way, He then is still my hope and stay!” Cling to His unchanging character. God is faithful. He is not caught off guard. He uses everything for His glory and your ultimate good. You will get through this.
From You’ll Get Through This
Daniel 1
Daniel’s Training in Babylon
1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia[a] and put in the treasure house of his god.
3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— 4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.[b] 5 The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.
6 Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your[c] food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”
11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.
18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.
21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Corinthians 1:4-9
Thanksgiving
4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Power Of Affirmation
September 10, 2013 — by Marvin Williams
I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus. —1 Corinthians 1:4
During a recent study, 200,000 employees were interviewed to discover the missing ingredient in their productivity. The study concluded that appreciation and affirmation topped the list of what they wanted most from their superiors. This research implies that receiving affirmation is a basic human need.
The apostle Paul seemed to realize this basic need in the Corinthian believers, so before he peppered them with firm words of discipline, he showered them with affirmation. As their spiritual leader, Paul began his letter with thanksgiving to God for the grace being displayed in their lives.
Once far from God, these believers were now participating in His grace through the death and resurrection of Christ. United with Jesus, they were drawing their spiritual life from Him, and the fruit of this union was their spiritual growth in godliness (1 Cor. 1:4-7). Paul deliberately and continually thanked God for His work in the Corinthian believers’ lives. I imagine that they were better able to bear firm criticism from Paul because of his tender affirmation.
When we see people who are obeying God, let’s take time to affirm them and to thank God for what He’s doing through them.
Lord, You are at work in so many ways in my life
and in the people around me. Help me to encourage
my brothers and sisters in Christ by telling them
how I am blessed to see Your work in them.
Praise loudly—correct softly.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 10, 2013
Missionary Weapons (1)
When you were under the fig tree, I saw you —John 1:48
Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, “If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion”? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character.
A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private “fig-tree” life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.
Are you saying, “But I can’t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn’t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready”? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God’s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.
God’s training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Your Surprising Platform - #6957
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Do you want me to speak from the floor or up on a platform? See, I'm sometimes asked to make that choice before I speak somewhere. Now, I would rather be on the floor, given that choice, because I just like to be closer to the people I'm speaking to. The problem is that, well if I do that, I will disappear. I know on the radio you think I'm six foot six, right? But in person I can only seem to muster about five foot seven inches. So, if I'm standing down on the floor with everybody else's level, then you might as well be listening to a recording, because you can't see the expression on my face. So I need to be above the crowd at least a little in order to best communicate my message. See, I need a platform. So do you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Surprising Platform."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians chapter 1, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 12. Paul is in one of the most confining and probably I'd say the most discouraging situations of his life. But listen to what he says as he writes from prison, "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly."
Paul is telling us here that the gospel that he wanted to carry to Rome is now penetrating Caesar's household through the Praetorian Guard, because those guards have been chained to him in prison and they've heard the gospel. And it says that many other people have gone out to preach the gospel because Paul is out of commission. His mission is being accomplished because of his imprisonment. In other words he's saying that the worst thing that ever happened to me, this imprisonment, has given me the best platform for my message.
Maybe there's someone's life that you've been wanting to get into with the gospel so they could be in heaven with you, and you have no platform from which they would listen to you. And then comes maybe one of the worst things that can ever happen to you in your lifetime; one of those bad things in life. For example, I think about the worst thing that ever happened to one young man I know. He blew out his knee playing high school football. At least up to that point it was the worst. His greatest dream; the most important thing in his life was to play football, and he blew out his knee.
He'd been praying for a fellow player and for his family; a young man who had been really hooked on drug addiction. The young man told me that he recently had a chance to share Christ for 35 minutes with this addicted player's Mom. I said, "How in the world did that happen, she's listening to a teenage guy share Christ for 35 minutes?" He said, "Well, she wanted to know how I could handle this disappointment." I thought, "Man, what an opening!" And he told her it was because of Christ. He said the worst thing that ever happened to him became the best platform he ever had to deliver that message.
That could be you, too. Any time's a good time to share what Christ can do. Our life isn't always filled with good times. That's the difference Christ makes when you lose someone you love, when you're betrayed, when you're a victim of injustice, or when your whole world caves in. Sometimes it is the ugly, painful event that gives you the right and the credentials to speak about your Lord.
Joni Erickson Tada - the worst thing that ever happened in her life was the day she dove into a bay and was paralyzed from that day on. And yet, that has given her a platform to share Christ around the world.
What you think is disaster today might be making you a place from which you can share Jesus with someone, and they'll listen because of what you've been through. That could be your surprising platform to change someone's eternal address.