Max Lucado Daily: To Be Seen
If we're not looking up at God, we're looking inward at ourselves and outward at each other. The result? Quarreling families. Restless leaders. Fence-building. No trespassing signs.
If we see only ourselves, our tombstones will have the same epitaph Paul used to describe enemies of Christ: "Their god is their own appetite, they glory in their shame, and this world is the limit of their horizon" (Philippians 3:19).
It's why God came near. To be seen. It's why those who saw Him were never the same. Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus. And Christian service is nothing more than imitating Him whom we see. The Bible says, "Unless a man is born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
God came near. There is no truth more worthy of your time.
From God Came Near
Zechariah 14
The Lord Comes and Reigns
A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake[c] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
6 On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.
8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.
10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place. 11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.
12 This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13 On that day people will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will seize each other by the hand and attack one another. 14 Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing. 15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.
16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. 18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord[d] will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.
20 On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite[e] in the house of the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 14:5 Or 5 My mountain valley will be blocked and will extend to Azel. It will be blocked as it was blocked because of the earthquake
Zechariah 14:18 Or part, then the Lord
Zechariah 14:21 Or merchant
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Micah 6:3-8
“My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab plotted
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
6 With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.
Footnotes:
Micah 6:8 Or prudently
Help From His Spirit
January 3, 2014 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? —Micah 6:8
Many of us make promises to ourselves to mark the beginning of a new year. We make pledges such as I’m going to save more, exercise more, or spend less time on the Internet. We begin the year with good intentions, but before long old habits tempt us to take up our old ways. We slip up occasionally, then more frequently, and then all the time. Finally, it’s as if our resolution never existed.
Instead of choosing our own self-improvement goals, a better approach might be to ask ourselves: “What does the Lord desire of me?” Through the prophet Micah, God has revealed that He wants us to do what is right, to be merciful, and to walk humbly with Him (Mic. 6:8). All of these things relate to soul-improvement rather than self-improvement.
Thankfully, we don’t have to rely on our own strength. The Holy Spirit has the power to help us as believers in our spiritual growth. God’s Word says, He is able to “strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Eph. 3:16 niv).
So as we begin a new year, let’s resolve to be more Christlike. The Spirit will help us as we seek to walk humbly with God.
Truthful Spirit, dwell with me;
I myself would truthful be;
And with wisdom kind and clear
Let Thy life in mine appear. —Lynch
He who has the Holy Spirit as his resource has already won the victory.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 3, 2014
Clouds and Darkness
Clouds and darkness surround Him . . . —Psalm 97:2
A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him . . . .” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet— getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God— it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us — “clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way— words.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Unexplained Orders - #7040
Friday, January 3, 2014
There are some advantages to living where it's cold in the winter, especially if you're a child in school. You know, it's those two great words, "Snow Day!" I remember on one particular overnight snow when the guys were real small. We heard our sled calling us from the garage. I said, "Snow Day! Let's play!" So there's this hill near us, and when we got there half the town was there. So, we got on our sleigh; my oldest son and I were on it this one time. We started down the hill and we were almost to the bottom when I looked behind us. I didn't like what I saw. There was this big sled speeding straight at us. He didn't see us. I had time for one word, "Jump!" My son responded instantly. We both jumped off and I think we might have missed some injury by inches. I was really glad he didn't take time to ask, "Why, Daddy?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unexplained Orders."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 8. It says, "Philip went down to a city in Samaria, and proclaimed Christ there. When the crowd heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said." The Bible goes on to say, "There were wonderful miracles. There was great joy in the city." Now, boy, if I'm Philip, I'm going to stay there for a while, because God's really working and this is awesome!
In lieu of all this, though, "An angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road - the desert road - that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home he was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, 'Go to that chariot and stay near it.'"
Well it goes on to lead to the conversion of this man and ultimately the planting of Christianity in Africa, all because Philip does what he's told. Honestly, I'm not sure the orders made much sense. God didn't give any orders except "Go to the desert." And Philip was in the middle of these great meetings going on. So why am I going to leave these and go to the desert?
I think my son felt the same way when he got unexplained orders that day, "Hey, it's going great! We're having fun! Why would we jump?" God sends orders for Philip to quit what he is doing, go to the desert, and it leads to this powerful result. But he doesn't tell Philip what's going to happen. Philip doesn't say, "Why, Daddy?" He was obedient without explanation. He's told to go to the desert without explanation. Then he's told to go stand next to this chariot without explanation. But he obeyed.
See, God is preparing something supernatural, but it depends on your obeying without explanation. Notice, Philip's only given the first step, and God leaves it that way; it's kind of take a step, see a step. Seldom do we know where the step is going. He asks us to obey in faith, walking by faith not by sight, and if we obey like that, we will live a life that's full of supernatural encounters and divine matchups, and destiny events. See, powerful lives go one step beyond obedience without explanation; it's obedience without hesitation.
Maybe you're disobeying something God is speaking to you about because you want more details. But maybe God is saying, "Leave," or "Go," or "Go for it," "Talk to that person," "Change this," "Try that." This is the crossroads of faith and obedience. Will you obey without explanation? If not, you'll probably miss God's best. That day in the snow I really praised my son for his quick obedience. He didn't need an explanation. He just trusted his father, and he was rewarded for it.
Now, God is your Father, and He has certainly proved you can trust Him at the cross where His Son gave everything for you. Can't you trust Him enough to obey Him without question? It's like the old song says, "Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."