Max Lucado Daily: He Will Heal You
Are you waiting for Jesus to heal you? Take hope from Jesus' response to the blind man in Mark 10:45-47.
"Have mercy on us, O Lord!" the blind man cried. Everyone else kept going. Jesus froze. Something caught his attention. Interrupted his journey. Raising his hand to stop the people, lifting a finger to his lips for them to be quiet. What was it? What did Jesus hear?
A prayer. An unembellished appeal for help floating on winds of faith and landing against his ear. Jesus heard the words and stopped. He still does. And he still asks, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
Before amen-comes the power of a simple prayer! And Jesus' heart went out to the blind men. He touched their eyes. Jesus moved in where others had stepped away. He healed them. At the gateway to heaven, God's children will once again be whole!
From Before Amen
Numbers 13
Twelve Scouts Explore Canaan
The Lord now said to Moses, 2 “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.” 3 So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He sent out twelve men, all tribal leaders of Israel, from their camp in the wilderness of Paran. 4 These were the tribes and the names of their leaders:
Tribe Leader
Reuben Shammua son of Zaccur
5 Simeon Shaphat son of Hori
6 Judah Caleb son of Jephunneh
7 Issachar Igal son of Joseph
8 Ephraim Hoshea son of Nun
9 Benjamin Palti son of Raphu
10 Zebulun Gaddiel son of Sodi
11 Manasseh son of Joseph Gaddi son of Susi
12 Dan Ammiel son of Gemalli
13 Asher Sethur son of Michael
14 Naphtali Nahbi son of Vophsi
15 Gad Geuel son of Maki
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent out to explore the land. (Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by the name Joshua.)
17 Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps? 20 Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)
21 So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai—all descendants of Anak—lived. (The ancient town of Hebron was founded seven years before the Egyptian city of Zoan.) 23 When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol (which means “cluster”), because of the cluster of grapes the Israelite men cut there.
The Scouting Report
25 After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned 26 to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. 27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. 28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea[d] and along the Jordan Valley.”
30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”
31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33 We even saw giants[e] there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Read: Galatians 4:1-7
Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. 2 They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3 And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles[a] of this world.
4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.[b] 6 And because we[c] are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”[d] 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.[e] And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
Footnotes:
4:3 Or powers; also in 4:9.
4:5 Greek sons; also in 4:6.
4:6a Greek you.
4:6b Abba is an Aramaic term for “father.”
4:7 Greek son; also in 4:7b.
Insight
In today’s passage, Paul explains that our salvation is the work of our triune God. First, “God sent forth His Son” (v.4). Second, Jesus came to accomplish our redemption—setting us free from the bondage of the law—and to secure our adoption, making us sons of God and enabling us to enjoy the full privileges as God’s children (v.5). Third, God gave us the Holy Spirit—“the Spirit of His Son,” who endears and enables us to cry out “Abba, Father!” (v.6). The work all three persons of the Holy Trinity did to secure our salvation is also explained by Paul in Ephesians 1:3-14 and by Peter in 1 Peter 1:2. Jesus spoke of this as well (John 14:16-18,23-26; 15:26).
Creeping Christmas?
By Bill Crowder
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! —2 Corinthians 9:15
I love Christmas. The celebration of the birth of Christ and the beauty and wonder of the season make it “the most wonderful time of the year” for me. In recent years, however, the season has been accompanied by a growing irritation. Every year “Christmas stuff” comes out earlier and earlier—creeping all the way back to early fall.
Christmas used to be limited to December, but now we find radio stations playing Christmas music in early November. Stores start advertising Christmas specials in October, and Christmas candy appears in late September. If we’re not careful, this growing deluge can numb us—even sour us to what should be a season of gratitude and awe.
When that irritation begins to rise in my spirit, I try to do one thing: Remember. I remind myself what Christmas means, who Jesus is, and why He came. I remember the love and grace of a forgiving God who sent us rescue in the Person of His Son. I remember that, ultimately, only one gift really matters—God’s “indescribable gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15). I remember that the salvation Christ came to provide is both the gift and the Giver all wrapped up in one.
Jesus is our life all year long, and He is the greatest wonder. “O come, let us adore Him!”
Living God, I thank You for the unspeakable gift
of Your Son. Draw my heart to Your own, that my
worship to and gratitude for Your Son will never be
diminished by the distractions of the world around me.
Jesus is our life throughout the year.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Faith or Experience?
…the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. —Galatians 2:20
We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, “I haven’t had this experience or that experience”! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Super Glue - #7264
Our outreach to Native Americans has only increased my wife's appreciation for Indian jewelry. She can't afford a lot, but she can look a lot. One night I was busily involved in a conversation and she was over in a corner, quietly working on some jewelry. Actually she was painstakingly trying to glue some tiny little pieces of turquoise into this bracket thing. And then I heard, "Oh-oh!" I said, "What happened?" She said, "I got some glue on my finger. I said, "Well, okay." She said, "It's Super Glue!" And instantly her thumb and her forefinger had become part of the bracelet. "Oh, no! The ads are right! That stuff bonds instantly; it bonds permanently!" Well we had our own little E.R. there and we spent probably an hour trying to unglue my wife. We tried hot water, home remedies, carefully pealing. It was painful, but well, finally we were able to give her back her thumb and finger.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Super Glue."
Now our word for today from the Word of God, we're in 1 Corinthians 6 and I'll begin reading in verse 16. "Do you not know that He who unites himself with a prostitute, he is one with her in body. For it is said that two will become one flesh. But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body. But he who sins sexually sins against his own body."
Now these are the words coming from the Inventor of sex. And it reveals something that many people just don't realize about sex until it's too late. Sex is emotional and spiritual super glue; it deeply bonds people to each other, whether they're aware of it or not. Whether they intend for it to or not. And like my wife with her bracelet, you will bond even if you never meant to. And like my wife, it's painful to separate when you've done something that permanently bonds.
This "one flesh," well that's quoted from God when it says that about a married couple. "Let no man separate" that couple He says. See, sex is designed by the Creator to be inside a life-long love covenant called marriage. It's designed to permanently bond people. It's given that kind of power to do that. But when you do it outside the marriage covenant, it still has its' bonding power. It deeply attaches you soul to soul with your sexual partner. Even if it's the totally meaningless sex with a prostitute that the Bible mentions here. You can't stop the bonding.
Now, tape bonds to whatever you stick it on. But if you stick it to different surfaces over and over, you know eventually it won't stick any more. See people don't realize that every time they get really involved physically with someone they're giving away more of their ability to have a solid bond; their ability to give and receive lifetime love.
Then in the one relationship they really want to work, the bonding is much weaker than God ever created it to be. And when you try to end a relationship that's been heavily physical, it's like trying to separate two pieces of paper that have been glued together. It rips both people, because two people who have been sexually committed were never meant to separate.
Now, if you asked my wife, she would say, "Be very, very careful with Super Glue or you will end up bonded when you really shouldn't be. And it's going to hurt a lot to separate what's bonded." Well that's really what your Creator's trying to tell you about sex. Keep it special. Keep it saved for your lifetime partner. Don't push the limits physically. Stay within the bonds of marriage. "Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure", Hebrews 13:4.
You say, "Ron it's a little late for me." If you've already gone beyond God's boundaries, I have great news for you. Jesus died for that sin. Come to His cross, hear His promise. This is right out of His Word, "I will remember your sins no more." That forgiving, that cleansing, that new start, that fresh new life, begins when you come to His cross and say, "Jesus, it was for my sin you died." If you've never had that moment, that's what our website's all about. It's to help you begin with Him. Experience His love for yourself.
I would invite you to come to ANewStory.com today. Because the power of Jesus can begin to restore your emotional and spiritual virginity. Whatever you've done before today doesn't ever have to matter again, because God has forgiven you.
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