Max Lucado Daily: The Command to Do Nothing
When I was ten, my mother enrolled me in piano lessons. Spending thirty minutes every afternoon tethered to a piano bench was a torture just one level away from swallowing broken glass.
I hammered the staccatos. I belabored the crescendos. But there was one instruction in the music I could never obey to my teacher's satisfaction. The rest. The zigzagged command to do nothing. Nothing! What sense does that make? "Because," my teacher patiently explained, "music is always sweeter after a rest."
"Be still," the scripture says, "and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). Perhaps it is time for you to let the music slow to a stop…and be still and rest.
From The Applause of Heaven
Psalm 76
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of Asaph. A song.
1 God is renowned in Judah;
in Israel his name is great.
2 His tent is in Salem,
his dwelling place in Zion.
3 There he broke the flashing arrows,
the shields and the swords, the weapons of war.[f]
4 You are radiant with light,
more majestic than mountains rich with game.
5 The valiant lie plundered,
they sleep their last sleep;
not one of the warriors
can lift his hands.
6 At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
both horse and chariot lie still.
7 It is you alone who are to be feared.
Who can stand before you when you are angry?
8 From heaven you pronounced judgment,
and the land feared and was quiet—
9 when you, God, rose up to judge,
to save all the afflicted of the land.
10 Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise,
and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.[g]
11 Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them;
let all the neighboring lands
bring gifts to the One to be feared.
12 He breaks the spirit of rulers;
he is feared by the kings of the earth.
Psalm 76:1 In Hebrew texts 76:1-12 is numbered 76:2-13.
Psalm 76:3 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 9.
Psalm 76:10 Or Surely the wrath of mankind brings you praise, / and with the remainder of wrath you arm yourself
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Colossians 3:12-17
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The Hidden Life
Insight
In contrast to Colossians 3:8-10, where Paul describes some of the behaviors that followers of Christ are to leave behind through the help of His transforming power, verses 12-16 describe several of the new attributes that a Christian should demonstrate. There is an interesting interplay between verses 12-14 and 15-16. We are to “put on” certain character traits, actively investing in their development (vv.12-14). However, we are to “let” the peace of God rule in our hearts and the word of Christ dwell in us (vv.15-16). The development of Christlike character is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work in us and our response of yielding to Him.
January 8, 2014 — by David H. Roper
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. —Colossians 3:17
Some years ago, I came across a poem by George MacDonald titled, “The Hidden Life.” It tells the story of an intellectually gifted young Scot who turned his back on a prestigious academic career to return to his aging father and to the family farm. There he engaged in what MacDonald called, “ordinary deeds” and “simple forms of human helpfulness.” His friends lamented what they saw as a waste of his talents.
Perhaps you too serve in some unnoticed place, doing nothing more than ordinary deeds. Others might think that’s a waste. But God wastes nothing. Every act of love rendered for His sake is noted and has eternal consequences. Every place, no matter how small, is holy ground. Influence is more than lofty acts and words. It can be a simple matter of human helpfulness: being present, listening, understanding the need, loving, and praying. This is what turns daily duty into worship and service.
The apostle Paul challenged the Colossians: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,” and “do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance” (Col. 3:17,23-24). God takes notice and delights in using us.
Dear Lord, may I be willing to be hidden and unknown
today, yet ready to speak a word to those who are
weary. May Your Spirit touch my words and make
them Your words that enrich and refresh others.
The way to accomplish much for Christ is to serve Him in any way we can.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 8, 2014
Is My Sacrifice Living?
Abraham built an altar . . . ; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar . . . —Genesis 22:9
This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not— “Lord, I am ready to go with You . . . to death” (Luke 22:33). But— “I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God.”
We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.
It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice”— to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12:1). This is what is acceptable to God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Monster Inside All of Us - #7043
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
As an airline passenger, those video images from the Los Angeles airport were just plain disturbing: a human stampede, terrified passengers, fleeing from a gunman on the loose in the terminal.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Monster Inside All of Us."
This time it was an airport. Who knows where it will be next time. These explosions of violence have happened in a theater, a mall, an office, a school, a church. The bullets may start flying anyplace, leaving behind lost and shattered lives. And you can be pretty sure the person pulling the trigger is an angry man. Whose anger - often hidden from those who know him - one day erupts like a volcano, destroying whatever's in its path.
My sense is that there are a lot of angry people around us these days, seething inside, sinking into a darker and more dangerous place each day. You see it surface as road rage, angry parents at their kids' games, frustrated shoppers, bullies at school and on the Internet creating anger in their victims.
Usually, behind anger is pain. Angry people feel wounded, wronged, unnoticed, unheard, victimized, and taking it out on whoever inadvertently pushes their buttons. Many times there are, in fact, things in their past that have left them broken inside, but never with an excuse to wound or do violence to someone else because of it.
I suppose, at one time or another, we are each the angry person. Not on a rampage to end lives, but angry enough to inflict some serious damage on people around us. Most often the folks we love most.
Mount St. Helens in Washington used to be considerably higher until she literally blew her top in an eruption one day. The eruption didn't take long. The damage? That's there forever. Underlying a lot of our explosive moments is this full glass thing. If I pour water into a half-empty glass, it will take quite a bit to make it spill. But if I'm going through life with a glass that's already full, it only takes a drop to make it spill. And there are plenty of "drops" in a day's time; aggravations, conflict, and difficulties.
And with the spill comes the lashing out. Usually the violence is the verbal kind. The world's best-selling book, the Bible, describes it as "reckless words (that) pierce like a sword." I can sure remember reckless words that pierced me like a sword. Sadly, I'm afraid people I care about carry similar wounds from my reckless words. Long after the "wounder" has forgotten the "wounded" carries the scars of that anger.
Part of the problem is that some of us were raised to stuff our emotions. We don't deal with them. We don't show them, and that's what fills up the glass. The time bomb's going to keep ticking until we make room in that glass, which means taking a bold healing step; facing that pain that we've stuffed in our closet. It's the match that keeps lighting the fuse of the anger and leaving a trail of burn victims in our wake.
It may mean walking through the pain with a counselor. Or digging deep into spiritual resources for the most liberating step a wounded person can take - forgiving. Even seeking forgiveness from those who've been the victim of my anger.
Maybe the kids are right. There actually is a monster in the closet, a wounded monster, an angry monster who needs to be dragged out into the light so the healing can begin. Ironically, it is often the "monsters" that we can't control that drive us to a greater power; someone who's repeatedly proven that He can subdue the dark forces that control us. It is my dark side that drives me to Jesus Christ.
When He was on earth, He encountered a man in the grip of forces so dark the authorities chained him to control him. "But he tore the chains apart...(the Bible says) No one was strong enough to subdue him." No one, that is, except Jesus. Who expelled the "evil spirit". And it says the locals were stunned to find the man "sitting at Jesus' feet...in his right mind" (Luke 8). Jesus is still doing miracles like that, fixing what's broken inside us, transforming the evil inside us. That victory over our darkness came at a high price.
Our word for today from the Word of God we're told in Revelation 1:5 that "He loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood". Today He wants to bring peace into the angry storm in your life if you will open the door of your heart to Him. I would love to help you do that if you would join me at our website-ANewStory.com-and begin your personal, transforming relationship with the one who tames the monster inside us.
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