Max Lucado Daily:Desperate Dads Go to Jesus
In Mark 5:23 we meet Jairus-a leader of the synagogue-one of the most important men in the community. But the man in this story is a humble man, saying again and again, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." He doesn't barter with Jesus. He doesn't negotiate. He doesn't make excuses. He just pleads!
There are times when everything you have to offer is nothing compared to what you're asking to receive. What could a man offer in exchange for his child's life? So there are no games, no haggling. Jairus asks for help. Jesus, who loves the honest heart, goes to give it. And God, who knows what it's like to lose a child, empowers His Son!
From Dad Time
Matthew 15:21-39
New International Version (NIV)
The Faith of a Canaanite Woman
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand
29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31 The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Deuteronomy 8:1-3, 11-16
Do Not Forget the Lord
8 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Insight
Remembering the hunger Israel experienced during their 40 years in the wilderness, Moses told them it was “to do you good in the end” (Deut. 8:16). What good? To “make you know that . . . man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (v.3). Some lessons are best learned through trials and understood in perspective.
The View From The End
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
All things work together for good to those who love God. —Romans 8:28
Over the course of one year, Richard LeMieux’s lucrative publishing business collapsed. Soon, his wealth disappeared, and he became depressed. Eventually, LeMieux began to abuse alcohol and his family deserted him. At the lowest point in his life, he was homeless, broken, and destitute. However, it was during this time that he turned to God. He later wrote a book about what he learned.
The Israelites learned some valuable spiritual lessons when God allowed them to endure homelessness, uncertainty, and danger. Their hardships humbled them (Deut. 8:1-18).
They learned that God would provide for their needs. When they were hungry, He gave them manna. When they were thirsty, He gave them water from a rock. God taught them that, despite difficult times, He could bless them (v.1). Finally, the Israelites learned that adversity is not a sign of abandonment. Moses reminded them that God had been leading throughout their 40 years in the wilderness (v.2).
When we encounter desperate times, we can look for the spiritual lessons embedded in our difficulties—lessons that can help us rely on the One who causes all things to work together for our good and for His glory (Rom. 8:28).
Dear God, please give me the faith
to believe that You can bring good out of
any situation. Help me to see what You
want to show me during adversity.
The clearest view of everything that happens comes from heaven.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
“The Secret of the Lord”
06
03
2014
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him . . . —Psalm 25:14
What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer— “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)— that we catch the secrets of God? What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us— He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.
“Him shall He teach in the way He chooses” (Psalm 25:12). At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices. And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never try to reason it out, saying, “I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?” God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, “Now, Lord, what is Your will?”
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Memory Loss - #7147
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
I guess I'll always feel like a visitor in the world of computers. I don't think I'm alone in my generation. My grandchildren, of course, were kind of born knowing what to do with them. I can remember when I first got my very first laptop computer. We had some struggles. I mean, they talked to me about a hard drive, and I thought that was like, you know, New York to Chicago in one day. That was a hard drive. And, you know, they were talking about like megabytes, and I thought that was like big mosquitoes in Minnesota or something like that. But now, listen. I'm a little more computer literate. My little laptop is my friend. I don't always understand it. But then, I don't always understand my friends anyway.
Anyway, I was preparing for a message, and I had typed some very important notes into my laptop. I went to print them out and they were not there anywhere to be found. Well, it ended up that the problem was my computer memory. I had maxed it out, and those notes, I guess, fell into a black hole somewhere in the computer abyss. This happens to my own memory sometimes. Just when I needed that information the most, there was a crisis because of a memory loss.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Memory Loss."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 6, beginning at verse 45. Here's what it says, "Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, He went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and He was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.
About the fourth watch of the night He went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw Him walking on the lake, they thought He was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw Him and were terrified. Immediately He spoke to them and said, 'Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.' Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed."
Okay, the disciples are in a major storm, maybe like you are right now. They were there because they were doing what Jesus said. That's exactly where Jesus had told them to go. They were doing everything they could to get control. They were straining at the oars. They were really afraid, and they must have been asking, "Where is Jesus right now?" But you need to know what these men had seen Jesus do recently. They were there when He fed the 5,000 not very long before this. They had just watched Him heal sick people, cast out demons, raise a dead girl, and even calm a storm.
If only the memory of what Christ had done before could have helped them believe Him for this current crisis. But, "No." When they needed the memory of past miracles, they couldn't bring it up on their screen. They had a memory loss of God's never failing faithfulness. So instead of facing the storm with faith, they surrendered to fear.
And nothing has changed with Jesus' disciples over 2,000 years. We go through so much unnecessary stress and anxiety because we cannot bring into this present need all that we've learned about our Lord in all the past needs. Like the disciples, we often can't see Jesus, so we assume He's doing nothing while we're struggling. He saw them, He was praying for them. He was planning to come at the time when they could learn the most about His power and His love. And that's what He's doing for you right now in your storm. Even when you can't see any activity, when you can't see any possible solution, He will walk on water to deliver you if necessary.
Maybe you've been suffering from memory loss in the times when you need that "miracle memory" the most. Thank God daily for the work He's doing for you. Write it down so you'll remember He did it. And then today, in this storm, remember that the Savior who has carried you through every storm in your life is not about to abandon you now.