Max Lucado Daily: A Second Chance
She was only five years old when you took the photo. Cheeks freckled by the summer sun, hair in pigtails. That was twenty years ago. Three marriages ago. A million flight miles and e-mails ago. Today she walks down the aisle on the arm of another father. You left your family bobbing in the wake of your high-speed career. Now that you have what you wanted, you don't want it at all. Oh, to have a second chance.
1 John 4:15 says, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God."
He re-purposes bad decisions and squalid choices. Saved by grace is to be saved by Him. He placed a term limit on sin and danced a victory jig in a graveyard. God can do something with the mess of your life. Grace is what you need!
From GRACE
Malachi 4
Judgment and Covenant Renewal
“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. 3 Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Footnotes:
Malachi 4:1 In Hebrew texts 4:1-6 is numbered 3:19-24.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: James 3:1-12
Taming the Tongue
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Insight
In today’s passage, James writes about Christian maturity. One of the characteristics of maturity is self-control, particularly control of the tongue. Fortunately, we are not responsible for developing it by willpower alone. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23).
The Silent Pen
By Randy Kilgore
The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. —James 3:18
Former US President Harry Truman had a rule: Any letters written in anger had to sit on his desk for 24 hours before they could be mailed. If at the end of that “cooling off” period, he still felt the same sentiments, he would send the letter. By the end of his life, Truman’s unmailed letters filled a large desk drawer.
How often in this age of immediate communication would even 24 minutes of wise restraint spare us embarrassment! In his epistle, James addressed a universal theme in human history when he wrote about the damage an uncontrolled tongue can bring. “No man can tame the tongue,” he wrote. “It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (3:8).
When we’re gossiping or speaking in anger, we find ourselves outside the lines of what God desires. Our tongues, our pens, and even our keyboards should more often fall silent with thanks in our hearts for the restraint God provides. All too often, when we speak we remind everyone of our brokenness as human beings.
When we want to surprise others with the difference Christ makes, we may need to look no further than restraining our tongue. Others can’t help but notice when we honor God with what we say—or don’t say.
Help me, Lord, to use my words not to
tear down others or build up my own reputation,
but to seek the good of others first, and in so doing
to serve You and Your kingdom.
Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. —Proverbs 21:23
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Obedience to the “Heavenly Vision”
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision —Acts 26:19
If we lose “the heavenly vision” God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to “the heavenly vision” is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.
“Though it tarries, wait for it . . .” (Habakkuk 2:3). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that “tarries” is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.
Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will “bear much fruit” (John 15:8).
It is essential that we live and “walk in the light” of God’s vision for us (1 John 1:7).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When Power is Abused - #7087
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
We'll put up with a lot from our politicians, but not everything. See, we really don't like it when someone in power abuses that power for personal gain, personal revenge, covering up wrongdoing, and exploiting other people.
In news just a few weeks ago, a former governor was allegedly using his position to feather his own financial nest. At least that's the accusations. And accusations have been flying about another governor who some say used his power to punish or intimidate. But accusations sometimes are all it takes to turn public opinion.
On the other hand, the press can abuse its power, right? Editing, arranging, and slanting the news to serve their view of how the world should be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Power is Abused."
My first brush with the abuse of power was Boomer. He was our neighborhood bully. I'm not sure if his mother predestined his "bullyness" by naming him Boomer or if he just plain earned it. He was the biggest kid on the block. So he intimidated and threatened and ripped off all of us little kids, and he got away with it just because he was big. We hated it. You know, we still do...all of us.
I find it very easy to see power being abused when it's someone else, but not so much when it's me. Because, in one way or another, most of us have some kind of position that gives us some power in people's lives. I'm a husband and I have the power to elevate my wife or push her down. I'm a parent which gives me all kinds of power to make my children feel very special or very small.
I'm an employer, and that puts me in a driver's seat where I can dominate or develop people. There are men who use their power to use and abuse and diminish women. Thus exposing what small men they are. There are women who use their power to manipulate and control, thus forfeiting the tenderness and selflessness that makes a woman really beautiful.
There are parents who use the incalculable power they have to crush, to criticize, to belittle their children. Or to use a son or daughter to fulfill what they once were or what they never were and want to be and birthing a robot or a rebel in the process. There are leaders who feel position entitles them to ignore the rules and treat people as things. Thus failing as humans no matter how high they rise, and guaranteeing that one day the bill will come and be more than they can pay. Power is a trust, not a weapon, not a platform for your personal agenda, not a license to live for yourself.
In my lifetime, there have been people I had to follow only because they were in the power position. Then there have been those that I wanted to follow whether they had the position or not because of their character; leading, not using. Leaving you encouraged, not diminished. They empowered, not erased us. Forgiving, not punishing. Making other people feel important instead of acting like they were important.
That's power. Not being a control freak, which is often why we covet power; to be in control. Must be first. Must call the shots. Must get you to do what I want you to do. Must get my way. Tragically, that's put us in the danger zone with the very One who has all the power there is. That would be God. We've decided that we will take charge of a life that God created; hijacking what is His to do with it what we want instead of what He planned.
But defying God has a high price tag. In our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 59:2 it says, "Your sins have separated you from your God." I've felt that wall between me and God. I'll bet we all have. Living with that wall means never knowing the purpose and the love I was made for. Dying with that wall there means it will be there forever.
My power grab of my life would have cost me everything except the amazing intervention of the very God I've rebelled against. The Bible says, "He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). The One with all the power set it aside to rescue me. And when I surrendered the wheel to Him, He moved into my life with all that power that raised Him from the dead. Plus, He's bigger than any "Boomer" I'll ever face!
I want to help you begin a relationship with this Jesus. I hope you'll go to ANewStory.com to find out how. There's no reason to live one more day without the One who loves you the most.
