Max Lucado Daily: The Prison of Pride
The prison of pride. You’ve seen the prisoners—the alcoholic who won’t admit his drinking problem; the woman who refuses to talk to anyone about her fears. Perhaps to see such a prisoner all you have to do is look in the mirror!
The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us” (I John 1:9). The biggest word in Scripture just might be that two-letter one, if.
Confessing sins, admitting failure, is exactly what prisoners of pride refuse to do. They say, “Listen, I’m just as good as the next guy.” “I pay my taxes.” Justification. Rationalization. Comparison. These are the tools of the jailbird. But in the kingdom of God they sound hollow. Many know they’re wrong, yet pretend they are right. As a result they never taste the exquisite sorrow of repentance.
Blessed are those who know they’re in trouble and have enough sense to admit it!
From The Applause of Heaven
Revelation 7
New International Version (NIV)
144,000 Sealed
7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
5 From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
6 from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
7 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
8 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.
The Great Multitude in White Robes
9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:
“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”
13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”
14 I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore,
“they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence.
16 ‘Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’[a]
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’[b]
‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’[c]”
Footnotes:
Revelation 7:16 Isaiah 49:10
Revelation 7:17 Isaiah 49:10
Revelation 7:17 Isaiah 25:8
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 6:25-34
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Footnotes:
Matthew 6:27 Or single cubit to your height
Insight
In today’s passage, we read our Lord’s admonition to trust in God’s provision instead of worrying. Managing our troubles by faith one day at a time is wise counsel indeed: “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (v.34). Leaving our struggles in God’s hands is a key to peaceful living.
Food In The Cupboard
January 15, 2014 — by Dave Branon
Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about . . . what you will put on. —Matthew 6:25
My friend Marcia, the director of the Jamaica Christian School for the Deaf, recently illustrated an important way to look at things. In a newsletter article she titled “A Blessed Start,” she pointed out that for the first time in 7 years the school began the new year with a surplus. And what was that surplus? A thousand dollars in the bank? No. Enough school supplies for the year? No. It was simply this: A month’s supply of food in the cupboard.
When you’re in charge of feeding 30 hungry kids on a shoestring budget, that’s big! She accompanied her note with this verse from 1 Chronicles 16:34, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
Year after year Marcia trusts God to provide for the children and staff at her school. She never has much—whether it’s water or food or school supplies. Yet she is always grateful for what God sends, and she is faithful to believe that He will continue to provide.
As we begin a new year, do we have faith in God’s provision? To do so is to take our Savior at His word when He said, “Do not worry about your life . . . . Do not worry about tomorrow” (Matt. 6:25,34).
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength. —Corrie ten Boom
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 15, 2014
Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him . . . that just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection-a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Original Love - #7048
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Our friend, Kathy, has walked to get around most of her life. Recently she started floating. Yeah, she got the glow, a new bounce in her voice when she answers the phone, a new confidence. Kathy's more alive than we've ever seen her. Now, what magic could bring about all these wonders? If you haven't guessed, you've been away too long. She's in love! She's in her twenties, and this is her first really big romance. It might be her lifelong romance. It's pretty exciting to watch.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Original Love."
Well, there is nothing quite so beautiful as original love. God thinks so. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Revelation 2. God is talking to a powerhouse group of believers. He says in verse 2, "I know your deeds. I know your hard work. I know your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men. You've tested those who claimed to be apostles but are not; you've found them false. You've persevered. You've endured hardship for My name and have not grown weary."
Man, these are believers who were doing a lot of things right, and maybe they describe you: working hard for the Lord, staying true when others are wandering, taking a stand against false teaching, biblically loyal, enduring hardships for Jesus. These folks are going to get the Church of the Year award, right? No! They're missing what Jesus valued most.
Listen to Revelation 2:4, "Yet I hold this against you; you have forsaken your first love.Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place." Jesus says, "You've fallen! You don't love Me like you used to." You've got the right theology, the right lifestyle, the right activities, but that's not the height. The height was when you loved Him more with original love.
Could Jesus be saying that to you right now? I mean, so much is right in your life, and I'm grateful for that. But the big thing isn't right. You don't love Me like you used to. See, first love takes on flesh and blood as I watch it come alive in Kathy's romance. First love isn't cerebral; it's emotional. Do you have deep feelings for Jesus, or has the passion of your love grown cold? I want to be more moved by Jesus; more moved by what He did for me on the cross than I've ever been in my life.
And Kathy's original love is expectant. She looks forward to each new day of being with, or talking with, and going places with the man she loves. That's how a Jesus lover looks at his day or her day; being with Him, talking with Jesus in the many experiences of this day. And I'm watching in Kathy a love that's buoyant. You know, no problem seems big enough to sink her now because of a love that's bigger than all that. Well, those who deeply love Jesus experience a similar buoyancy. Jesus is simply so overwhelming to me that nothing else really is.
It's so easy for the first love to die. In our relationship with Jesus, first love gets quenched by the rules, the rat race, the rats, the religiosity, the responsibilities, or sometimes by spiritual adultery when we let something else have the best of our love. Maybe Jesus is calling you back to that love you had when you knew Him a lot less but you loved Him more. It's so easy to lose. Loving Jesus has always begun at the same place. The hymn says, "That old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, has a wondrous attraction for me, where the dear Lamb of God left His glory above to bear it to dark Calvary."
In the middle of all our Christianity, it's easy to forget what it's all about. It's a relationship. It's a love affair with the Lord Jesus. Maybe right now He's got His hands on your shoulders. He's asking you what He asked Peter, "Do you love Me? "Oh, yes, Lord, if ever I loved You, my Jesus, 'tis now."