Max Lucado Daily:
Drop Some Stuff
God has a great race for you to run. Under His care you'll go where you have never been and serve in ways you've never dreamed. But you have to drop some stuff.
How can you share grace if you're full of guilt? How can you offer comfort if you're disheartened. How can you lift someone else's load if your arms are full with your own? For the sake of those you love-travel light. For the sake of the God you serve, travel light. For the sake of your own joy, travel light.
There are weights in life you simply cannot carry. Set them down and trust Him. I can't overstate God's promise in 1 Peter 5:7: "Unload all your worries onto Him, since He is looking after you."
What do you say we take God up on His offer? We might find ourselves traveling a little lighter.
From Traveling Light
Job 18
Bildad
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 “When will you end these speeches?
Be sensible, and then we can talk.
3 Why are we regarded as cattle
and considered stupid in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger,
is the earth to be abandoned for your sake?
Or must the rocks be moved from their place?
5 “The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out;
the flame of his fire stops burning.
6 The light in his tent becomes dark;
the lamp beside him goes out.
7 The vigor of his step is weakened;
his own schemes throw him down.
8 His feet thrust him into a net;
he wanders into its mesh.
9 A trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare holds him fast.
10 A noose is hidden for him on the ground;
a trap lies in his path.
11 Terrors startle him on every side
and dog his every step.
12 Calamity is hungry for him;
disaster is ready for him when he falls.
13 It eats away parts of his skin;
death’s firstborn devours his limbs.
14 He is torn from the security of his tent
and marched off to the king of terrors.
15 Fire resides[a] in his tent;
burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling.
16 His roots dry up below
and his branches wither above.
17 The memory of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name in the land.
18 He is driven from light into the realm of darkness
and is banished from the world.
19 He has no offspring or descendants among his people,
no survivor where once he lived.
20 People of the west are appalled at his fate;
those of the east are seized with horror.
21 Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man;
such is the place of one who does not know God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Ezra 9:5-9
Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed:
“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
8 “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place[a] in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. 9 Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.
Footnotes:
Ezra 9:8 Or a foothold
Insight
In the midst of the joy of God’s grace in allowing a remnant to return to their homeland, Ezra mourned. He mourned because the people of Israel were not only physically distant from God, but spiritually distant as well. Yet God in His grace did more than enable the physical return of the remnant; He also preserved a spiritual remnant. Upon hearing the law of God, the people recommitted themselves to Him (Ezra 10:1-4).
Tree Of Rest
By Julie Ackerman Link
There is a remnant according to the election of grace. —Romans 11:5
The lone tree in the field across from my office remained a mystery. Acres of trees had been cut down so the farmer could grow corn. But one tree remained standing, its branches reaching up and spreading out. The mystery was solved when I learned the tree was spared for a purpose. Farmers long ago traditionally left one tree standing so that they and their animals would have a cool place to rest when the hot summer sun was beating down.
At times we find that we alone have survived something, and we don’t know why. Soldiers coming home from combat and patients who’ve survived a life-threatening illness struggle to know why they survived when others did not.
The Old Testament speaks of a remnant of Israelites whom God spared when the nation was sent into exile. The remnant preserved God’s law and later rebuilt the temple (Ezra 9:9). The apostle Paul referred to himself as part of the remnant of God (Rom. 11:1,5). He was spared to become God’s messenger to Gentiles (v.13).
If we stand where others have fallen, it’s to raise our hands to heaven in praise and to spread our arms as shade for the weary. The Lord enables us to be a tree of rest for others.
Thank You, Father, that You are my place of rest.
And that all You have brought me through
can be used by You to encourage others.
Bring praise to Yourself through me.
Hope can be ignited by a spark of encouragement.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 02, 2014
The Patience To Wait for the Vision
Though it tarries, wait for it . . . —Habakkuk 2:3
Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration. Moses endured, not because of his devotion to his principles of what was right, nor because of his sense of duty to God, but because he had a vision of God. “. . . he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue— he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision is of God because of the inspiration that comes with it. Things come to you with greatness and add vitality to your life because everything is energized by God. He may give you a time spiritually, with no word from Himself at all, just as His Son experienced during His time of temptation in the wilderness. When God does that, simply endure, and the power to endure will be there because you see God.
“Though it tarries, wait for it . . . .” The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have already grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. The psalmist said, “What shall I render to the Lord . . . ? I will take up the cup of salvation . . .” (Psalm 116:12-13). We are apt to look for satisfaction within ourselves and say, “Now I’ve got it! Now I am completely sanctified. Now I can endure.” Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. Paul said, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on . . .” (Philippians 3:12). If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing. But if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of spiritual relaxation.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Ultimate Outrage - #7125
Friday, May 2, 2014
Our dog, Missy, was easily entertained. We just threw her a plastic bottle. This was accidentally discovered one day when a two-liter soda bottle fell on the floor in the kitchen. She pounced on it, grabbed the bottle in her mouth, and shook it viciously. You could tell from three rooms away that she was fighting with one of those bottles, because she would throw it in the air and then try to catch it with her nose. And then it ended up bouncing all over the kitchen. You should have seen her ten minutes later. She's sprawled lifelessly on the floor; a blob of fur, totally exhausted from that fight with a plastic bottle. It's amazing how much energy she put into a battle that just didn't matter.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Ultimate Outrage."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 2:4. God says, "No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He wants to please his commanding officer." Actually that word in the Greek language that the Bible was written in? It's prágmatas, or the pragmatics. You don't get all tied up or involved in the pragmatics of life; the little mechanics. No plastic bottle wars, no little battles for a soldier who's in Jesus' army.
In fact, here's the mission. Two verses earlier in verse 2 it says, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." In other words, your mission is passing on the gospel that was passed on to you. The number one battle is the battle for people's eternal souls. A Jesus soldier is supposed to focus on that battle like your Jesus did.
Now, Christians today get excited over many bottles... excuse me, battles. For example, there are conservative talk show hosts whose books and programs are always really hot, and people are intrigued with those. Some of those are amusing, some are articulate, and their views on moral and political issues are right up the alley of a lot of us believers. And everywhere I go I'm hearing Christians talking excitedly about the latest programs. "Hey, did you hear what he said last night?" And they have great power to get their viewers and listeners all up-in-arms over things that are happening in Washington.
In fact, after decades of being politically passive, (and I've lived through that period of time) Christians are putting a great deal of energy now into fighting public policy battles, and lifestyle battles. We spend a lot of time on trying to get conservative candidates elected. We want to get some social trends stopped, and some that probably should be. We want to get prayer back in schools. In most cases, they're very worthy causes. But they're just not the ultimate battle, because they do not address the ultimate outrage.
Ezekiel 33:8, "When I say to the wicked, 'Oh wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin and I will hold you accountable for his blood." God thinks that the ultimate outrage is when a person who is created in His image ends up spending eternity without Him - lost; eternity in hell perhaps because one of us did not warn them. That outweighs any other issue.
The early believers got that. I mean, it was the time of Nero, and slavery, and aborted babies, and violence, and murder as a public sport. But you don't find them spending much time or energy demonstrating about those social issues. That wasn't what they fought for. The early Christians believed that the gospel of Christ was the most powerful force for social change in the world; more than friendly politicians, more than marchers, more than laws.
Listen, it's right to take a Christlike stand on the moral issues of our day. But we dare not lose sight of the one cause that has forever consequences. We need to be sure that the best of our time, the best of our energy, and our money, and our enthusiasm is marshaled against the ultimate outrage. That the reaching of the lost with the love of Jesus be the one cause that consumes us most.
Remember, if we're going to get exhausted in battle, let's do it for the battles that matter the most; that matter forever.