Max Lucado Daily: God is For You
Paul asks the question in Romans 8:31, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
The question isn't simply, "Who can be against you?" You could answer that one. Who is against you? Disease, inflation, corruption, exhaustion. Calamities confront, and fears imprison. Were Paul's question, "Who can be against us?" we could list our foes much easier than we could fight them.
But God is for us. God is for us. God is for us! Your parents may have forgotten you, your teachers may have neglected you, your siblings may be ashamed of you; but within reach of your prayers is the maker of the oceans. God!
God is for you. Not "may be," not "has been," or "was," but God is! He is for you. Today. At this hour. At this minute. As you hear this, He is with you. God is for you!
From The Lucado Inspirational Reader
Ezekiel 39
“Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of[h] Meshek and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. 4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. 5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. 6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the Lord.
7 “‘I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the Lord am the Holy One in Israel. 8 It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign Lord. This is the day I have spoken of.
9 “‘Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign Lord.
11 “‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east of the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog.[i]
12 “‘For seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I display my glory will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign Lord. 14 People will be continually employed in cleansing the land. They will spread out across the land and, along with others, they will bury any bodies that are lying on the ground.
“‘After the seven months they will carry out a more detailed search. 15 As they go through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will leave a marker beside it until the gravediggers bury it in the Valley of Hamon Gog, 16 near a town called Hamonah.[j] And so they will cleanse the land.’
17 “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan. 19 At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. 20 At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.
21 “I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay on them. 22 From that day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. 23 And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.
25 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will now restore the fortunes of Jacob[k] and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. 26 They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Ezekiel 39:1 Or Gog, prince of Rosh,
Ezekiel 39:11 Hamon Gog means hordes of Gog.
Ezekiel 39:16 Hamonah means horde.
Ezekiel 39:25 Or now bring Jacob back from captivity
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Footnotes:
Luke 1:35 Or So the child to be born will be called holy,
Overshadowed
November 22, 2013 — by David C. McCasland
The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. —Luke 1:35
The assassination of US President John F. Kennedy stunned people around the globe 50 years ago today. The day after the shooting, an article in The Times (London) spoke of the reverberations being felt throughout world financial markets. It carried the headline, “All Other Events Overshadowed by US Tragedy.”
There are times in our lives when a death, a tragedy, or a sudden turn of events eclipses everything else. It happened to an unmarried young woman who was told that she would become the mother of the promised Messiah, God’s Son (Luke 1:26-33). When she asked how this could happen, the angel Gabriel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you” (v.35).
The impossibility in Mary’s life was overshadowed not by darkness but by the brightness of God’s glory and power. Her response continues to leave us in awe: “Let it be to me according to your word” (v.38).
In the coming weeks, as we read again the Christmas story and consider the birth of Jesus into our world, it’s worth pondering the word overshadowed. It speaks so powerfully of the Lord’s presence in our hearts and His ability to outshine the darkest moments.
I’m overshadowed by His mighty love,
Love eternal, changeless, pure,
Overshadowed by His mighty love,
Rest is mine, serene, secure. —Ironside
In every situation, we are overshadowed by God’s mighty love and power.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 22, 2013
Shallow and Profound
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31
Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby.
To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher . . .” (Matthew 10:24).
We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.
Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The 'Always' Person - #7010
Friday, November 22, 2013
It really bothers me when I go into the next room for something and I can't remember why I went in there. So, as long as I keep having birthdays - and I hope I do - this memory thing is going to be getting worse and worse I think. That's what they say. Now, my wife's grandfather? He lived to be 93 years old, and frankly there wasn't much that he remembered near the end. She called him one day and she told him who it was, and he didn't say much. And then she said, "Granddad, this is your granddaughter." And then she said, "I love you." Well, it seemed like he was almost embarrassed. He said, "I...I don't know you." He's thinking, "Who is this strange woman calling this old man and telling him she loves him?" That was pretty tough for my wife, because she was very close to her grandfather. They lived right next door. She was as much a part of their family as she was of her parent's family. Well, she bounced back, though, and she gave her granddad one more reminder. Then we found out the one memory that the years had not erased.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Always Person."
My wife told her Granddad the day that he couldn't remember who she was, "Well, Granddad, let me just say one last thing to you, 'Jesus loves you.'" All of a sudden Granddad's whole tone of voice changed, and with conviction he said, "Now Him I know!" Well this One who had walked with Granddad through most of his 93 years was still real to him when he couldn't remember anyone else.
King David would have understood that. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from that familiar passage, the 23rd Psalm beginning at verse 1. "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." The Lord, basically David is saying, He is life's one 'always' person.
Our daughter got very sick when she was a little girl. We were in this little mountain town an hour from the hospital. She had to go to that hospital, but my wife and I were both so sick we couldn't take her. So a friend took her to this strange hospital and they admitted this little girl. She's in this strange town; she's got no Mommy or Daddy with her. It was pretty sad.
When I was finally able to get there she said, "Daddy, I was really lonely and scared in this hospital room. But I put my Bible on the stand next to the bed and I knew Jesus was there. Even when your Mommy and Daddy can't be with you, Jesus is with you." That's right. Or when your husband or wife can't be with you, or your family, or your friends, or your spiritual leaders. When you can't even remember the people you love, Jesus is with you.
I have to ask you, are you sure you belong to this Jesus; the One who said, "I will never leave you or forsake you"? He's the only one who can make that promise and keep it forever. And you've lived long enough to know that other people disappoint you. They leave you, they turn on you, they move away, they die on you. We need an 'always' person, and there's only one. You say, "Well, how can I be sure I belong to Him?" Well, listen to John 1:12 in the Bible. "To as many as believed in Him, to those who received Him, He gave the right to become the children of God."
You do it by invitation. You don't know Jesus automatically just because you're religious or you went through the right rituals or you know a lot about Him or you hang out in Christian places. You've got to believe in Him. And that is total trust like a drowning person grabbing a lifeguard, and you're trusting Him to remove that sin-wall between you and God; the death penalty you and I deserve for running our own lives. Coming to that cross where He died and beginning a God relationship. Telling Jesus, "I'm pinning all my hopes on You."
If you're not sure you've done that, and you want to be sure you belong to Jesus - the "always" person - would you meet me at our website? It's ANewStory.com and you'll find out there how to begin.
My wife's grandfather had the personal closeness of Jesus every season of his life right to the end, right through the valley of the shadow of death. Don't wait any longer to begin this forever relationship. The earlier you start, the better you're going to know your one "always" person.