Max Lucado Daily: What He Says He Will Do
God will always be the same. No one else will. Companies follow pay raises with pink slips. Friends applaud you when you drive a classic and dismiss you when you drive a dud. Not God. God is always the same. James 4:1 says, with Him, “there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Catch God in a bad mood? Won’t happen. Fear exhausting His grace? A sardine will swallow the Atlantic first. Think He’s given up on you? Wrong. Did He not make a promise to you?
God is not a human being, and He will not lie. He is not a human, and He does not change His mind. What He says He will do. What He promises will come true. His strength, truth, ways, and love never change.
Hebrews 13:8 declares “He is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Trust him…what He says, He will do!
From The Lucado Inspirational Reader
Ezekiel 37
The Valley of Dry Bones
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
One Nation Under One King
15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.’ 17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.
18 “When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ 19 say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’ 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding,[b] and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
24 “‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Philippians 2:1-5
Imitating Christ’s Humility
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Genuine Concern
November 20, 2013 — by Bill Crowder
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. —Philippians 2:4
On the first night at family camp, the camp director informed the families of the schedule for the week. When finished, he asked if anyone else had anything to say. A young girl stood up and made a passionate appeal for help. She shared about her little brother—a boy with special needs—and how he could be a challenge to care for. She talked about how tiring this was for her family, and she asked everyone there to help them keep an eye on him during the week. It was an appeal born out of genuine concern for her brother and her parents. As the week went on, it was great to see people pitching in to help this family.
Her appeal was a gentle reminder of how easily we can all get wrapped up in our own world, life, and problems—to the point that we fail to see the needs of others. Here’s how Paul described our responsibility: “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4). The next verse reminds us that this is part of the example of Christ: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Our caring displays a Christlike concern for people who are hurting. May we rest in God’s grace, trusting Him to enable us to serve others in their seasons of need.
Lord, open my eyes to the hurts, needs, and struggles
of a world that is so desperately in need of Your love.
Help me to be Your instrument to inject
that love into hurting lives.
Nothing costs as much as caring—except not caring.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 20, 2013
The Forgiveness of God
In Him we have . . . the forgiveness of sins . . . —Ephesians 1:7
Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive— He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm.
Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Dog Walking - #7008
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Okay, I never voted for having a dog in our house. I think they sneaked her in when I was on a trip or something. Her name was Missy - a Shih Tzu, and the last time she went to this dog care place, they registered her as Missy Hutchcraft. Now that's my last name! There's no family resemblance, and I wasn't sure I want to give her my last name.
But I must confess, Missy taught me something I might never have understood. See, it was never hard to find Missy. When our son was home he was her master. So when he went to college, you never knew where you were going to find her in the house. But when he came home, oh it was easy. If you found him, you found Missy. If he was in the living room, she was in the living room. He was in the basement, Missy's in the basement. He was in his room, Missy was in his room. Missy didn't care where she was as long as she was where her master was.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Dog Walking."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Joshua chapter 14, and it spotlights an ancient Jewish hero named Caleb. When the ancient Jewish people had come to the border of the land God had promised them, Moses sent 12 spies in. Ten came back and said, "Giants, walled cities, no way we can take it." Two came back, Joshua and Caleb, and said, "Let's go for it! We've got God!" Ten saw how big the giants were instead of how big their God was.
Well, they got to wander for 40 years as a result of that, and a whole generation of unbelieving adults didn't get to go to the Promised Land. Forty years later, though, the Jews have conquered that land under General Joshua. And Caleb and Joshua do get to go in because they believed they could. Caleb is now 85, but he's still a tiger for God. Or better yet, he's a dog. That's actually what Caleb means - "dog." What a thing to name your kid, "Yo, Dog!" Listen, it's a great name when you understand why.
In Joshua 14:7, the 85-year-old man says, "I was 40 years old when Moses sent me to explore the land, and I brought him back a report according to my convictions. But my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear.
I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly." Then it says a little later in the chapter, "You, Caleb, have followed the Lord your God wholeheartedly." It says one more time later in the chapter "he wholly followed the Lord all the days he lived." Good dog! What a tribute! What an epitaph! I'd love it on my tombstone, "He followed the Lord his God wholeheartedly." Caleb is God's puppy dog. He doesn't care where he goes; he just wants to be where his Master is going and he'll follow Him there even if there are giants there.
That's what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 12:26, "Whoever serves Me must follow Me so that where I am my servant will be." See, if you love Jesus, you don't plan your life. You pray, you listen, and you look to His Word to find out where He's headed. Where is He headed in your day? Where's He headed with your family? Where's He headed with that relationship? With your ministry? With your child? And then you just go there right behind Him.
Missy let her master's steps determine hers. She followed my son wholeheartedly. That's what you're supposed to do with Jesus. Caleb wouldn't let anything make him leave his Master's lead. Not years in the wilderness, not hardship, not giants bigger than he was, not waiting a long time for what God promised, and not being almost the only one standing up for what was right. He just said, "I'll follow my Lord. I'll follow my Lord. I'll follow my Lord no matter where He takes me."
Could it be that under all that Christian head knowledge, all that activity, and all that Christianity you've lost sight of the simple, uncomplicated bottom line? You've just got to find out where Jesus is going and go with Him in that direction.
I hate to say it, but I want to be like Missy. Or maybe more like Caleb; not caring where I end up as long as I'm right on the heels of my Master, following the Lord my God wholeheartedly.
