Max Lucado Daily: Anger Lives in Sorrow's House
Why does grief linger? Because you're dealing with more than memories-you're dealing with unlived tomorrows. You're battling disappointment. You're also battling-anger!
It may be a flame. It may be a blowtorch. But anger lives in sorrow's house. Anger at self. Anger at life. Anger at the military or the hospital or the highway system. But most of all, anger at God. Anger that takes the form of the three-letter question-why? Why him? Why her? Why now? Why us? You and I both know I cannot answer that question. Only God knows the reasons behind His actions.
But a key truth on which we can stand is this-our God is a good God! Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the LORD is good." God is a good God. We must begin here. Though we don't understand His actions, we can trust His heart!
From Traveling Light
Job 33
“But now, Job, listen to my words;
pay attention to everything I say.
2 I am about to open my mouth;
my words are on the tip of my tongue.
3 My words come from an upright heart;
my lips sincerely speak what I know.
4 The Spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
5 Answer me then, if you can;
stand up and argue your case before me.
6 I am the same as you in God’s sight;
I too am a piece of clay.
7 No fear of me should alarm you,
nor should my hand be heavy on you.
8 “But you have said in my hearing—
I heard the very words—
9 ‘I am pure, I have done no wrong;
I am clean and free from sin.
10 Yet God has found fault with me;
he considers me his enemy.
11 He fastens my feet in shackles;
he keeps close watch on all my paths.’
12 “But I tell you, in this you are not right,
for God is greater than any mortal.
13 Why do you complain to him
that he responds to no one’s words[d]?
14 For God does speak—now one way, now another—
though no one perceives it.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on people
as they slumber in their beds,
16 he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
17 to turn them from wrongdoing
and keep them from pride,
18 to preserve them from the pit,
their lives from perishing by the sword.[e]
19 “Or someone may be chastened on a bed of pain
with constant distress in their bones,
20 so that their body finds food repulsive
and their soul loathes the choicest meal.
21 Their flesh wastes away to nothing,
and their bones, once hidden, now stick out.
22 They draw near to the pit,
and their life to the messengers of death.[f]
23 Yet if there is an angel at their side,
a messenger, one out of a thousand,
sent to tell them how to be upright,
24 and he is gracious to that person and says to God,
‘Spare them from going down to the pit;
I have found a ransom for them—
25 let their flesh be renewed like a child’s;
let them be restored as in the days of their youth’—
26 then that person can pray to God and find favor with him,
they will see God’s face and shout for joy;
he will restore them to full well-being.
27 And they will go to others and say,
‘I have sinned, I have perverted what is right,
but I did not get what I deserved.
28 God has delivered me from going down to the pit,
and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.’
29 “God does all these things to a person—
twice, even three times—
30 to turn them back from the pit,
that the light of life may shine on them.
31 “Pay attention, Job, and listen to me;
be silent, and I will speak.
32 If you have anything to say, answer me;
speak up, for I want to vindicate you.
33 But if not, then listen to me;
be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”
Job 33:13 Or that he does not answer for any of his actions
Job 33:18 Or from crossing the river
Job 33:22 Or to the place of the dead
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 103:6-18
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
Insight
Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote eloquently of Psalm 103: “[This psalm of David] is in his own style when at its best, and we should attribute it to his later years when he had a higher sense of the preciousness of pardon, because [of] a keener sense of sin, than in his younger days. His clear sense of the frailty of life indicates his weaker years, as also does the very [fullness] of his praiseful gratitude.”
More Than We Deserve
By Joe Stowell
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. —Psalm 103:10
Sometimes when people ask how I’m doing, I reply, “Better than I deserve.” I remember a well-meaning person responding, “Oh no, Joe, you deserve a lot,” to which I replied, “Not really.” I was thinking about what I truly deserve—God’s judgment.
We easily forget how sinful we are at the core of our being. Thinking of ourselves more highly than we should diminishes our sense of deep indebtedness to God for His grace. It discounts the price He paid to rescue us.
Time for a reality check! As the psalmist reminds us, God “has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Ps. 103:10). Considering who we are in light of a holy and just God, the only thing we truly deserve is hell. And heaven is an absolute impossibility—except for the gift of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. If God never does anything more than redeem us, He has already done far more than we deserve. No wonder the psalmist says, “As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him” (v.11).
Knowing ourselves for what we are, we can’t help but say, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!” He gives us so much more than we deserve.
Lord, thank You for not dealing with me according
to my sins. I am indebted to You for the love and
grace that You demonstrated on the cross to
purchase my pardon and forgiveness—far beyond what I deserve!
If God never does anything more than redeem us, He has already done far more than we deserve.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 23, 2014
Our Careful Unbelief
. . . do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on —Matthew 6:25
Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.
“. . . do not worry about your life . . . .” Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No— “the cares of this world” (Matthew 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, “I will not trust when I cannot see”— and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The 'Not Ready' Nightmare - #7140
Friday, May 23, 2014
I used to think I didn't dream much. But I guess that's scientifically inaccurate. We all dream a lot, but some of us like me don't remember them. Now, my wife? She dreams in these Technicolor epics! I mean, I'm lucky if I remember a black and white short subject. Once in a while, though, I do remember a bad dream I've had. Not usually about monsters or murderers. I think you're going to laugh when I tell you about what a lot of my nightmares are about. Not being ready. Yeah, you know, stepping up to a microphone totally unprepared; having a huge audience waiting for me to speak in an auditorium and I'm backstage. They push me to go out. I'm being introduced. I have nothing ready to say.
I heard my pastor say the same thing actually. His nightmares are also about not being ready. He dreams that he's up there on a Sunday morning and there's no sermon. Some women have told me they have had nightmares about not being ready for a date. Others have told me about their nightmare about not being ready for a meeting of a board of directors where they have to give an important report.
You know what? If our dreams reflect our fears, then there must be this fear deep down inside of many of us that we won't be ready when an important moment comes.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 'Not Ready' Nightmare."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the Old Testament prophet Amos. It's a pretty simple, straightforward sentence. Amos 4:12, "Prepare to meet your God." Now, if not being ready is nightmare stuff, then not being ready to meet God must be the ultimate nightmare. I mean, meeting Him is the surest date you have.
Hebrews 9:27 in the Bible says, "It is appointed to man once to die, and after this the judgment." The moment you take your last breath, there's God. Earth appointments? They can be postponed. They can be canceled, but God has this one in indelible ink in His calendar. The One who gave you your life is the One you will meet at the end of your life. The question the Bible raises is, "Are you prepared?" You say, "Well, yeah, I'm a good person." Unfortunately, that doesn't answer the question.
Romans 3:20 says this, no one will be justified by observing the law. "No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law." Not protestant good things, not Catholic good things, not Jewish good things. Unfortunately no one is ready to meet God as long as he or she is still carrying around sin.
You say, "Well, we've all got sin we're carrying around." Yes, that's what Romans 3:23 says in that same chapter. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." If sin were something you could repay, maybe you could work it off with a lifetime of good deeds. But it's got to be removed! No matter how many times I keep the speed limit on our nearby Interstate, it doesn't erase the penalty I get for breaking the speed limit.
The penalty for sin is a death penalty; separation from God eternally. And it cannot be paid in good deeds. Somebody's got to die for a death penalty, and I deserve to. But the same place where it says "all of us have fallen short of the glory of God" says, "And we are justified (That means made right.) with God, freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Somebody did die for your sins and mine; the One who didn't deserve to. The only One who could-God's Son.
Now, how do you prepare to meet your God? Romans 3:25 says, "He was a sacrifice of atonement (that is to pay for your sin; to cover our sin) through faith in His blood." Faith in Jesus' dying for us. See, you open your heart to the One who paid your bill with God. "Lord, I put all my hope in Jesus Christ's work on the cross; my only hope that will bring me to You." Once you've told God that, then you're totally trusting in what Christ did and your nightmare is over. With your sins erased, you're ready.
If you say, "I'm not sure I am. How do I get started with this relationship with Jesus? How can I have my sins forgiven?" Would you go to our website? I'll do my best to help you find Him. It's ANewStory.com.
You've got an appointment with God. Are you ready? Going into eternity without Christ is the ultimate nightmare. If you're not sure, please don't risk another day without Jesus."
