Max Lucado Daily:A Dad’s Commitment
When I was seven years old, I’d had enough of my father’s rules and decided I could make it on my own. With my clothes in a paper bag, I stormed out the back gate. I didn’t go far. I got to the end of the alley and remembered I was hungry. I remember rather sheepishly taking my seat at the supper table across from the very father I had, only moments before, disowned.
Did Dad know? I suspect he did. Fathers usually do. Was I still his son? Apparently so. No one was sitting in my place at the table. Suppose you’d asked, “Mr. Lucado, your son says he has no need of a father. Do you still consider him your son?” I don’t have to guess at his answer. He called himself my father even when I didn’t call myself his son. His commitment to me was greater than my commitment to him! Does that sound familiar?
From Dad Time
Genesis 32
Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau
Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.[f]
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”
6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,[g] and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,[h] the group[i] that is left may escape.”
9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”
17 He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”
19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” 21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
Jacob Wrestles With God
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[j] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel,[k] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,[l] and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
Footnotes:
Genesis 32:1 In Hebrew texts 32:1-32 is numbered 32:2-33.
Genesis 32:2 Mahanaim means two camps.
Genesis 32:7 Or camps
Genesis 32:8 Or camp
Genesis 32:8 Or camp
Genesis 32:28 Israel probably means he struggles with God.
Genesis 32:30 Peniel means face of God.
Genesis 32:31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 103:1-8
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 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.
Insight
Many of the psalms refer to the miraculous and wonderful deeds of God in Israel’s history (see Pss. 44, 78, 89, 90, 105). Today’s psalm asks the reader to remember not God’s deeds but God’s character and the gracious benefits He gives to His people. God’s benefits—forgiveness, healing, redemption, and crowning with lovingkindness and mercy—have always been available to God’s people and are still available today (Ps. 103:3-5). These benefits are rooted in God’s character, which the psalmist describes in verse 8. This verse reminds the reader of God’s own description of His character in the book of Exodus: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth” (34:6).
Forgotten Memories
By Bill Crowder
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. —Psalm 103:2
Recently, a friend from my youth emailed me a picture of our junior high track team. The grainy black-and-white snapshot showed a vaguely familiar group of teens with our two coaches. I was instantly swept back in time to happy memories of running the mile and the half-mile in track meets. Yet even as I enjoyed remembering those days, I found myself thinking about how easily I had forgotten them and moved on to other things.
As we make our way on the journey of life, it is easy to forget places, people, and events that have been important to us along the way. Time passes, yesterday fades, and we become obsessed with the concerns of the moment. When this happens, we can also forget just how good God has been to us. Perhaps that is why David remembered as he wrote, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Ps. 103:1-2).
Never is this remembrance more needed than when the heartaches of life crowd in on us. When we are feeling overwhelmed and forgotten, it’s important to recall all that He has done for us. In remembering, we find the encouragement to trust Him in the present and for the future.
When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. —Oatman
Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past strengthens us for the future.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, June 20, 2014
Have You Come to “When” Yet?
The Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends —Job 42:10
A pitiful, sickly, and self-centered kind of prayer and a determined effort and selfish desire to be right with God are never found in the New Testament. The fact that I am trying to be right with God is actually a sign that I am rebelling against the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I pray, “Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer— I will walk rightly before You if You will help me.” But I cannot make myself right with God; I cannot make my life perfect. I can only be right with God if I accept the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to surrender all my rights and demands, and cease from every self-effort. I must leave myself completely alone in His hands, and then I can begin to pour my life out in the priestly work of intercession. There is a great deal of prayer that comes from actual disbelief in the atonement. Jesus is not just beginning to save us— He has already saved us completely. It is an accomplished fact, and it is an insult to Him for us to ask Him to do what He has already done.
If you are not now receiving the “hundredfold” which Jesus promised (see Matthew 19:29), and not getting insight into God’s Word, then start praying for your friends— enter into the ministry of the inner life. “The Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.” As a saved soul, the real business of your life is intercessory prayer. Whatever circumstances God may place you in, always pray immediately that His atonement may be recognized and as fully understood in the lives of others as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now, and pray for those with whom you come in contact now.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Communicating Where You Come From - #7160
Friday, June 20, 2014
My wife has enjoyed a search for her roots, you know, as we have time. There's one particular relative on her father's side that was really giving her a hard time. He's not alive any more, so he didn't mean to. But we followed the trail that went back to her great-grandfather, old Herbert Alonzo.
Now, each generation supplied some clues in this search for this particular relative, but old great-grandpa Herbert? He was no help at all. I said, "Of course, he's been dead for 50 years." No, that wasn't the problem. It's what he did or didn't do when he was alive that was the problem. We couldn't get to that generation prior to Old Herbert. That's where we need to find the person we were looking for.
See, Old Herbert was known to everyone for being tight lipped, and whenever he was asked what his background was, he'd simply say, "I'm just Yankee." He didn't talk about his Mom much. He didn't talk about his Dad. He didn't talk about anything much. And everybody, including my wife, remembers that the man never said much. That apparently frustrated the people around him. It even frustrated one particular descendant who never even met the man.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Communicating Where You Come From."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 2:18. It's the beginning of man and woman. "The Lord God said, (Now, Adam's all alone in the garden. He's got a great world), 'But it is not good' the Lord says, 'for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'"
Notice those words, "It is not good for the man to be alone." This is not only the beginning of marriage and the beginning of family. It's really the beginning of human relationships. Adam could not and should not be alone any more. So God begins to create a relationship to end that aloneness. Unfortunately, too many people are around the people they love, but they're not with the people they love. It could be that they don't communicate.
Maybe your family and your friends feel that way about you, "Well, he doesn't communicate much." "She hardly ever lets us know how she's feeling." Well, that's sad. And that's not the way it was meant to be. Like Old Herbert, he didn't communicate much and no one knew where he came from.
Maybe you're that way much of the time. And those who love you have no idea where you're coming from. They feel alone, and it's not good for us to be alone God said. We were created to be in touch with each other; to relieve each other's loneliness and isolation. But some of us are like all frozen inside.
Maybe you grew up around someone who was a non-communicator and you know how frustrating that was for you. Isn't it time someone broke this frustrating cycle of silence? Why don't you begin to pour out the deepest feelings you have to God. Don't come to Him all formal, religious, cool and uncommunicative. Not with the God who knows all about you. Find one person who you can reach out to for help; someone in your family, a close friend, and tell that person you want to open up but it's hard and you need their help. You need their patience. You need to know you can trust them.
Then keep some lists. Begin to really share where you're coming from. The people who love you are affected by what's going on inside of you, whether you tell them or not. See, it's just they have no idea why you are who you are, because you won't help them understand you. They need to know your story. They need to know your feelings that are behind how they see you being all the time.
Haven't you been alone long enough? You know, in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ you have found the one person who can open you up with His unconditional love. Why don't you let Him? Just ask the descendants of great-grandpa Herbert. It's really frustrating not to know where a loved one is coming from. Your silence hurts most of all the people you love the most. Come on; tell them where you are coming from.