Max Lucado Daily: Trust the Cross
My dog Salty knows he isn't supposed to get into the trash. But let the house be human free, and dark side of Salty takes over. If there's food in a trash can, the temptation is to?great. That's what happened the other day. I got mad, but I got over it. I cleaned up the mess and forgot about it. Salty didn't! He kept his distance. When I finally saw him, his tail was between his legs, ?his ears drooping. He thinks I'm mad at him. He doesn't know I've already dealt with his mistake.
Somewhere, sometime, you got tangled in garbage…and you've been avoiding god. You wonder if you could ever feel close to God again.The message of his torn flesh on the cross is - you can. The door is open. Don't trust your conscience. Trust the cross. You're welcome in God's presence!
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).
from He Chose the Nails
Job 4
Eliphaz
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
But who can keep from speaking?
3 Think how you have instructed many,
how you have strengthened feeble hands.
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;
you have strengthened faltering knees.
5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?
7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8 As I have observed, those who plow evil
and those who sow trouble reap it.
9 At the breath of God they perish;
at the blast of his anger they are no more.
10 The lions may roar and growl,
yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
11 The lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 “A word was secretly brought to me,
my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night,
when deep sleep falls on people,
14 fear and trembling seized me
and made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face,
and the hair on my body stood on end.
16 It stopped,
but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
and I heard a hushed voice:
17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
18 If God places no trust in his servants,
if he charges his angels with error,
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay,
whose foundations are in the dust,
who are crushed more readily than a moth!
20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;
unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,
so that they die without wisdom?’
Footnotes:
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Galatians 3:26–4:7
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
4 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces[a] of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b] 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Footnotes:
Galatians 4:3 Or under the basic principles
Galatians 4:5 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.
Galatians 4:6 Aramaic for Father
Insight
Paul’s use of the metaphor of adoption is significant. A child who is orphaned and abandoned is likely to die. But through adoption a child is accepted and made part of the family, with full status and rights. That child is given a new life. This is God’s action toward us. When God redeems us, He accepts us into His family as sons and daughters.
Joining The Family
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. —Galatians 3:26
Maurice Griffin was adopted when he was 32 years old. He had lived with Lisa and Charles Godbold 20 years earlier as a foster child. Although Maurice was now a man living on his own, adoption had been what the family and he had always longed for. Once they were reunited and the adoption was official, Maurice commented, “This is probably the happiest moment in my life. . . . I’m happy to be home.”
Those of us who have joined the family of God may refer to that time as the happiest moment in our lives. When we trust Christ for salvation, we become God’s children, and He becomes our heavenly Father. The Bible assures us, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26).
As God’s adopted children, we acquire spiritual siblings—our brothers and sisters in Christ—and we all share an eternal inheritance (Col. 1:12). In addition, Jesus’ Spirit indwells our hearts and enables us to pray using the name Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6)—like a child calling, “Daddy.”
To be a child of God is to experience the closeness and security of a Father who loves us, accepts us, and wants to know us. Our adoption into His family is a wonderful homecoming.
I once was an outcast stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice, and an alien by birth;
But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down,
An heir to the mansion, a robe, and a crown. —Buell
God’s arms are always open to welcome anyone home.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Can You Come Down From the Mountain?
While you have the light, believe in the light . . . —John 12:36
We all have moments when we feel better than ever before, and we say, “I feel fit for anything; if only I could always be like this!” We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to even when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for the everyday world when we are not on the mountaintop. Yet we must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there.
Never allow a feeling that was awakened in you on the mountaintop to evaporate. Don’t place yourself on the shelf by thinking, “How great to be in such a wonderful state of mind!” Act immediately— do something, even if your only reason to act is that you would rather not. If, during a prayer meeting, God shows you something to do, don’t say, “I’ll do it”— just doit! Pick yourself up by the back of the neck and shake off your fleshly laziness. Laziness can always be seen in our cravings for a mountaintop experience; all we talk about is our planning for our time on the mountain. We must learn to live in the ordinary “gray” day according to what we saw on the mountain.
Don’t give up because you have been blocked and confused once— go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will. Never change your decisions, but be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wearing the Shirt After the Loss - #7113
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Growing up, my sons never lived anywhere but in the New York area. And, therefore, they developed some pretty intense loyalty to things New York. Take the baseball season for example. Yep, they're still diehard Yankee fans. I mean, even when their Yankees weren't giving them much to cheer about. My sons were so dedicated and they really still are to the Yankees, that after a particularly embarrassing loss my youngest son made it a point to wear his Yankee shirt to school.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Wearing the Shirt After the Loss."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John chapter 20; one of the most exciting chapters in all of scripture. Verse 1 says, "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark..." Listen, that's not only physically dark, it was just really dark among Jesus' followers. "...while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance."
Later in this chapter it says, "Mary stood outside the tomb crying." And then the story goes on. This is just so beautiful! "At this moment, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 'Woman,' He said, 'why are you crying? Who is it that you are looking for?' Thinking He was the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.' Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' She turned toward Him and cried out, 'Rabboni!' (which means Teacher)." Wow!
Now, Mary was at the moment of her ultimate loss. She had staked all her hopes and the rest of her life on this Jesus, only to see Him hanging on a cross; to see Him buried in a borrowed tomb. And you know what? It was a hard time for anybody to admit they belonged to Christ. It was a dangerous time for people to admit that. And here she was. She thought that she was on the winning team, and now this unexplainable, seemingly irreversible loss. It was a moment of total defeat it appeared. And most of Jesus' followers? Where are they? They're nowhere to be found.
Now, let's talk about you. Maybe you've lost someone you really loved, somebody you cared about deeply. Or maybe you've gotten bad news from the doctor, or you're out of work, you're out of answers. Now is the time many people retreat. At least they become very silent about their relationship with the Lord, because they don't understand. "God, what are you doing? Where are you?" Mary sure didn't understand what was going on. But, see, now is the time to say like Mary did, "Jesus is still my Lord!"
The test of all you believe... Here you go. The test of all you believe is whether you are loyal when you've lost; loyal in a season of loss. You know, the first one that Jesus appears to, the first person to ever see Jesus resurrected and alive is Mary; the one who stuck with Him at the cross. The one who stuck with Him when He was buried. The one who went there after He was dead and it seemed like all hope was gone; who's still at that tomb afterwards. The one who was loyal to Him; totally committed to Him even in the darkest hour.
What about you? If you stick with Jesus where there seems to be no reason to, you will meet Him in a way that most believers will never ever experience Him. You give your all to Jesus, and at that point you have won. And you experience Him in the dark time, for who did He show up to? Who did He introduce himself to? Who saw Him first? It was the one who had been loyal when there seemed to be no reason.
Is that You? See, if it is, then when the victory comes, you can celebrate as only the loyal can.
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