Max Lucado Daily: Only You and God
When I lived in Brazil I took my mom and her friend to see Iguacu Falls, the largest water falls in the world. I’d become an expert by reading an article in National Geographic magazine. Surely, I thought, my guests would appreciate their good fortune in having me as their guide.
To reach the lookout point, you must walk a winding trail that leads through a forest. I used the time to give a nature report to my mom and her friend. I caught myself speaking louder and louder. Finally I was shouting above the roar. Even my mother would rather see the splendor than hear my description. So, I shut my mouth.
There are times when to speak is to violate the moment. When silence represents the highest respect. The word for such times is reverence. The prayer for such times is “Hallowed be Thy name!” (Matthew 6:9).
from The Great House of God
Genesis 17
The Covenant of Circumcision
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty[e]; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram[f]; your name will be Abraham,[g] for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.[h] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. 27 And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.
Genesis 17:1 Hebrew El-Shaddai
Genesis 17:5 Abram means exalted father.
Genesis 17:5 Abraham probably means father of many.
Genesis 17:19 Isaac means he laughs.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 1:35-42
John’s Disciples Follow Jesus
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter[a]).
Footnotes:
John 1:42 Cephas (Aramaic) and Peter (Greek) both mean rock.
Insight
Today’s reading records a call to discipleship. After John the Baptist identified Jesus as the “Lamb of God,” two of his disciples followed Jesus. Andrew is named, but the second spiritual seeker is not. Many commentators believe that the apostle John is the second disciple. Notice the easy conversation which takes place between the two disciples and Christ. He asks what they seek. They inquire about where He is staying, and He invites them to come and see. The tenth hour by Jewish reckoning was 4:00 p.m. Obviously, the day was coming to an end. Andrew became so excited about Jesus’ invitation that he went to find his brother Simon and brought him to meet the Master.
What’s In A Name?
By Poh Fang Chia
You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church. —Matthew 16:18
My friend wrote a letter to his newborn child that he wanted him to read when he was older: “My dear boy, Daddy and Mummy wish that you will find and stay focused on the Light. Your Chinese name is xin xuan. Xin means faithfulness, contentment, and integrity; xuan stands for warmth and light.” He and his wife carefully chose a name based on their hopes for their baby boy.
When Jesus renamed Simon as Peter/Cephas (John 1:42), it wasn’t a random choice. Peter means “the rock.” But it took a while for him to live up to his new name. The account of his life reveals him as a fisherman known for his rash ways—a shifting-sand kind of guy. Peter disagreed with Jesus (Matt. 16:22-23), struck a man with a sword (John 18:10-11), and even denied knowing Jesus (John 18:15-27). But in Acts, we read that God worked in and through him to establish His church. Peter truly became a rock.
If you, like Peter, are a follower of Jesus, you have a new identity. In Acts 11:26, we read, “The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” The name “Christians” means “Christ-ones.” You now are one of the Christ-ones. This title lifts up who you are and calls you to become what you are not yet. God is faithful, and He will complete His good work in you (Phil. 1:6).
Dear Father, thank You for the incredible privilege
of being called Your child. May we understand
more fully what it means to be identified with Your
Son, Jesus Christ. Work in us and through us.
We honor God’s name when we call Him our Father and live like His children.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 03, 2014
“If You Had Known!”
If you had known . . . in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes —Luke 19:42
Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly and the city was stirred to its very foundations, but a strange god was there-the pride of the Pharisees. It was a god that seemed religious and upright, but Jesus compared it to “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).
What is it that blinds you to the peace of God “in this your day”? Do you have a strange god-not a disgusting monster but perhaps an unholy nature that controls your life? More than once God has brought me face to face with a strange god in my life, and I knew that I should have given it up, but I didn’t do it. I got through the crisis “by the skin of my teeth,” only to find myself still under the control of that strange god. I am blind to the very things that make for my own peace. It is a shocking thing that we can be in the exact place where the Spirit of God should be having His completely unhindered way with us, and yet we only make matters worse, increasing our blame in God’s eyes.
“If you had known . . . .” God’s words here cut directly to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind them. These words imply responsibility for our own faults. God holds us accountable for what we refuse to see or are unable to see because of our sin. And “now they are hidden from your eyes” because you have never completely yielded your nature to Him. Oh, the deep, unending sadness for what might have been! God never again opens the doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut-doors which had no need to be shut. Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Dwarfing the Bully - #7104
Thursday, April 3, 2014
One thing I was never tempted to be was the neighborhood bully. First of all, you have to be big to be him! I never got there. Then, in the Chicago neighborhood where I grew up, there was a guy big enough to bully all of us. His name, (Oh, you're not going to believe this.) It was Boomer. If his Mother named him that, it's her fault he was a bully. It was predestined.
Well, all I know is that he was the first terrorist I ever knew, and I was one of his terrorees...whatever. He threatened all of us little kids, he would hurt us, and he would take our stuff. You know what? One day I had enough of Boomer's terrorism, so I marched down the street to his apartment building. I went where no one ever went. I went to his back porch. I went to Boomer's door. And sure enough Boomer came to the door looking as "Boomerish" as ever. But I insisted he'd give back the stuff he had taken! You say, "What a brave little guy you were. I really underestimated you." Yeah, well sort of. See, I did leave out one small detail. When I went to stand up to the bully, my Father went with me.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Dwarfing the Bully."
Now, it's amazing how my Dad changed the power equation that day. Very simple: Boomer was bigger than I was, but my Father was bigger than Boomer was. That made all the difference.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Exodus 3:11-12. The Lord has just announced to Moses that He is sending Moses to confront the most powerful man in the world - Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, and to tell Pharaoh to release the Jews from slavery. The Jews - the heart of his nation's labor force. Not likely!
Also, Moses is God's choice to lead this entire nation out of slavery, through the wilderness and into the barbarian controlled land that God had promised His people. Here's the conversation: Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
See, the challenge before Moses was totally intimidating and he felt totally inadequate. Like me facing Boomer. Like you facing the challenges in front of you right now. It may be one of those times when you feel like this is a total mismatch between what you have and what it's going to take.
Well, listen to the five-word answer from God that totally reverses the power equation. "And God said, 'I will be with you.'" End of discussion; no more you need to know. I cannot tell you how many times those words are God's total and final answer to our protest, to our fear, to our inadequacy, "I will be with you." That's it! He said it before Moses went to Pharaoh. It was His answer when Moses feared leaving Mount Sinai later on. He said, "My presence will go with you." And when Jesus ascended into heaven, leaving the weight of a lost world on 11 disciples, what were His parting words? "I will be with you always."
In chapter 4, Moses is still looking at the size of the bully. "Moses said to the Lord, 'I have never been eloquent and I am slow of speech and tongue.' The Lord said to him, 'Who gave man his mouth? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go and I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." So the conversation between you and God might go much like the one between Moses and God. You're saying, "Who am I, Lord?" And the Lord answers, "Wrong question. Who am I?" You see, that's all that matters.
Because no matter how big your Boomer is, your Father is bigger than Boomer.