Max Lucado Daily: Doing What Comes Naturally
My child's feelings are hurt, I tell her she's special. My child's injured, I do whatever it takes to make her feel better. My child's afraid, I won't go to sleep until she's secure. I'm not a hero. I'm not unusual. I'm a parent. When a child hurts, a parent does what comes naturally. He helps.
Moments of comfort from a parent. I can tell you they're the sweetest moments in the day. They come naturally, willingly, joyfully. If all that's so true, then why am I so reluctant to let my heavenly Father comfort me?
Being a father has taught me that when I'm criticized, injured, or afraid, there's a Father who's ready to comfort me. A Father who'll hold me until I'm better. And who won't go to sleep when I'm afraid. Ever! And that's enough.
From The Applause of Heaven
Psalm 81
For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] Of Asaph.
1 Sing for joy to God our strength;
shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel,
play the melodious harp and lyre.
3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,
and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
4 this is a decree for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 When God went out against Egypt,
he established it as a statute for Joseph.
I heard an unknown voice say:
6 “I removed the burden from their shoulders;
their hands were set free from the basket.
7 In your distress you called and I rescued you,
I answered you out of a thundercloud;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.[c]
8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—
if you would only listen to me, Israel!
9 You shall have no foreign god among you;
you shall not worship any god other than me.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
11 “But my people would not listen to me;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
to follow their own devices.
13 “If my people would only listen to me,
if Israel would only follow my ways,
14 how quickly I would subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes!
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
and their punishment would last forever.
16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Colossians 1:1-12; 4:12
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters[a] in Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father.[b]
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant,[c] who is a faithful minister of Christ on our[d] behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[e] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
Footnotes:
Colossians 1:2 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 4:15.
Colossians 1:2 Some manuscripts Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Colossians 1:7 Or slave
Colossians 1:7 Some manuscripts your
Colossians 1:9 Or all spiritual wisdom and understanding
Colossians 1:12 Some manuscripts us
The Little Tent
January 16, 2014 — by David C. McCasland
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. —Colossians 1:19
During evangelist Billy Graham’s historic 1949 Los Angeles campaign, the big tent that held over 6,000 people was filled to overflowing every night for 8 weeks. Close by was a smaller tent set aside for counseling and prayer. Cliff Barrows, longtime music director and close friend and associate of Graham, has often said that the real work of the gospel took place in “the little tent,” where people gathered on their knees to pray before and during every evangelistic service. A local Los Angeles woman, Pearl Goode, was the heart of those prayer meetings and many that followed.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the followers of Christ in Colosse, he assured them that he and his colleagues were praying always for them (Col. 1:3,9). In closing he mentioned Epaphras, a founder of the Colossian church, who is “always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (4:12).
Some people are given the high visibility task of preaching the gospel in “the big tent.” But God has extended to us all, just as He did to Epaphras and Pearl Goode, the great privilege of kneeling in “the little tent” and bringing others before the throne of God.
They labor well who intercede
For others with a pressing need;
It’s on their knees they often work
And from its rigor will not shirk. —D. DeHaan
Prayer is not preparation for the work, it is the work. —Oswald Chambers
The Voice of the Nature of God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ —Isaiah 6:8
When we talk about the call of God, we often forget the most important thing, namely, the nature of Him who calls. There are many things calling each of us today. Some of these calls will be answered, and others will not even be heard. The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not ours. God providentially weaves the threads of His call through our lives, and only we can distinguish them. It is the threading of God’s voice directly to us over a certain concern, and it is useless to seek another person’s opinion of it. Our dealings over the call of God should be kept exclusively between ourselves and Him.
The call of God is not a reflection of my nature; my personal desires and temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I will never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I will be in the same condition Isaiah was. Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Eagle Power - #7049
Thursday, January 16, 2014
I've always been fascinated by eagles. I just didn't get to see many of them around New York City. I mean, except for the ones that came from Philadelphia to play the Giants occasionally. But it's always been an exciting event for me to see an eagle. When one of my Navajo friends and I were together recently, I asked him about eagles. Of course he sees a lot more of them. And he told me about some amazing observations that he's made about them.
For example, he has watched an eagle leave their cliff-top nest and then begin to drop immediately into that valley below. Now you would expect them to start flapping their wings madly. Right? No, they don't do that to stop their fall. In fact, the eagle is virtually powerless to help himself. Does he crash? No. We've all seen pictures of that eagle soaring. So if the eagle can't do it, how does he fly? Wind currents from the valley below literally lift that eagle. His job isn't to flap his wings; it's to wait for the wind.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eagle Power."
As my Navajo friend told me about where the power comes from for the eagle's flight, I couldn't stop thinking about one of my favorite passages in the Bible; maybe one of yours. Our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah chapter 40, beginning at verse 28, "Do you know? Have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God? He's the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint."
Now, here's a mighty God who is never tired, never weary and powerless people. Maybe this is where you get into the picture. Maybe weary is a good word for you right now. Maybe you're physically depleted or you're emotionally spent, mentally shot. This is great news for people who don't have much left. Maybe you're weak like it says here. Your resources are just no match for the challenges. Your wisdom is not enough to figure this one out. You can contribute little or nothing to an answer. Sounds like the eagle! This says you soar on wings like eagles.
The eagle virtually has nothing to do with his ability to fly. He's lifted by a force outside of himself to do things he could never do on his own. And God says He wants to do that for you. This is great! The eagle's flight has nothing to do with the eagle's strength. God says, "Your flight in these powerless times has nothing to do with your strength. So when you're in a time of weakness, or weariness, or powerlessness you have every reason to be expectant, not depressed. This is a time when there's not much of you, but when there's going to be a whole lot of God. What God? The everlasting God, Isaiah said, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
Do you know, it's at the moments of powerlessness that we finally recognize, even our starting point with a relationship with the God who made us. For that's when we realize we need someone else to lift us, even to ever get to heaven when we die, to ever have our sins forgiven, to ever have the emptiness in our heart filled, to find the love that's eluded us in a lifetime of relationships. And when we realize we have nothing to contribute, we cannot possibly fly our way out of this flapping our wings is when we finally surrender to a Savior named Jesus.
You are that one step of surrender away from experiencing the greatest love and power in the universe. I don't know if you've ever begun a relationship with Jesus. If you never have, and you want to get that settled, I hope you'll join me at our website ANewStory.com. I think you can come away from there having begun that relationship.
So those who hope in Him will renew their strength. You fly on your own, you're going to crash. Maybe you're in a weak or weary time. Well, don't start flapping your wings madly. God says you're an eagle. You'll eventually soar if you do what you're supposed to do; trust your Creator's strength and ride on His wind.
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