Max Lucado Daily: What Pleases a Father
When our daughters were young, Denalyn went away for a couple of days and left me alone with the girls. Though the time was not without the typical children’s quarrels and occasional misbehavior, it went fine.
“How were the girls?” Denalyn asked when she got home. “Good. No problem at all.” Jenna overheard me. “We weren’t good, Daddy,” she objected. “We fought once; we didn’t do what you said once. We weren’t good.”
Jenna and I had different perceptions of what pleases a father. She thought it depended on what she did. It didn’t. We think the same about God. We think His love rises and falls with our performance. It doesn’t. I didn’t love Jenna for what she did. I loved her—and love her still—for whose she is. She’s mine. God loves you for the same reason. He loves you for whose you are; and you are His child!
From Dad Time
Genesis 34
Dinah and the Shechemites
Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home.
6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in[e] Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade[f] in it, and acquire property in it.”
11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. 12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”
13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. 14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. 17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”
18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. 19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s family, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city. 21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 22 But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.”
24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.
25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where[g] their sister had been defiled. 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Insight
Today’s reading reminds us of two influences in our lives (vv.9-10). One is “the old man,” that is, the person we were before trusting Christ. The other is “the new man” who is becoming more like Christ. We are to “put off” the behavior patterns of our old ways and “put on” the new character qualities of Christ.
Restored By The Master
By David C. McCasland
[You] have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. —Colossians 3:10
Over the centuries, many attempts have been made to restore damaged and time-worn masterpieces of art. While some of these efforts have skillfully preserved the original work of artists, others have actually damaged many works of genius, including ancient Greek statues and at least two paintings by da Vinci.
In Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colosse, he described a restoration process that is impossible in the world of art. It’s a restoration of God’s people. Paul wrote, “You have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Col. 3:9-10). This is no attempt at renovating the work of a deceased artist. It is a spiritual renewal from the living God who created us and gave us new life in His Son, Jesus Christ. His forgiveness brightens the colors of our lives while His grace sharpens the lines of His purpose for us.
The canvas of our lives is in the skilled hands of our Lord who knows who and what He designed us to be. No matter how sin-damaged and dirty we may be, there is hope for renewal and restoration. The Master Artist is alive and at work within us.
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,
To His feet thy tribute bring;
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Evermore His praises sing. —Lyte
Jesus specializes in restoration.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 23, 2014
He is . . . a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief —Isaiah 53:3
We are not “acquainted with grief” in the same way our Lord was acquainted with it. We endure it and live through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of our lives we do not bring ourselves to the point of dealing with the reality of sin. We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account, namely, sin— and it upsets all of our thinking and our plans. Sin has made the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational.
We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that. The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine— that is, sin will kill the life of God in us. We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Pursued By Love - #7161
Monday, June 23, 2014
If you want to ask me the five greatest victories in my life, I'm not sure I can tell you what two, three, four or five would be. But I could sure tell you what number one would be - my wife! See, she wasn't an easy conquest. She was dating this other guy, and I was after her long before she had any romantic thoughts about me. So I really had to work on this one. And I knew it would require almost a military campaign. So I plotted ways to be with her, I plotted ways to impress her. (Don't tell her all this, okay?) I plotted ways to try to help her. Of course this is all under the heading of "Oh, we have a brother and sister relationship."
After several months of this brother/sister thing, I blurted out to her one night, standing by a water fountain-I remember it. We were in college. I said, "I'm tired of this brother/sister thing. I want us to have more than that." See, I loved her before she loved me and I pursued her, and I got her.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Pursued By Love."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John chapter 1 beginning at verse 45. It's a little known encounter in the life of Jesus, but it's actually loaded with revealing information about what Jesus might be doing in your life right now. Philip has just come to Christ. And it says, "Philip found Nathanael and told him, 'We have found the One Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.' (Here's what Nathanael says.) 'Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?' 'Come and see' said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, 'Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.' 'How do you know me?' Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, 'I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.' Then Nathanael declared, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.'"
Okay, you notice here Nathanael's not initially interested in Jesus. But then Jesus says, "I saw you long before you saw me." Well that melted Nathanael's heart and it ultimately made him one of the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Actually, Jesus has had His eye on you for a long time. Here's what the Bible says in Ephesians 1:4 , "He chose us in Christ before the creation of the world." God has had His eye on you since before there was a world. And over the years of your life He's been pursuing you with His love whether you were paying any attention to Him or not. Like this guy I know who pursued this girl, and she was beautiful and attractive. The Bible says we're not beautiful and attractive to God. In fact it says, "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 ).
God's love for you and me isn't romantic love. It isn't because we're lovable. In fact, we're sinners who've hijacked our life from Him - the life that He gave us. Listen to this description of God's love for you. "This is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (John 4:10 ).
Now, I know on a finite level what it means to love someone before that person responds; to pursue the one you love. Well, the God of the universe has been doing that with you. He's been waiting for you while you've been checking out all those other options for your heart. Today, again, He's knocking on the door of your heart saying, "Isn't it time you opened your heart; opened your life to Me?"
He won't wait forever. That's why the Bible says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near." Today's really the only day you can be sure He'll still be found. Don't run from the love of Jesus any longer. He's pursued you one more time to find you right where you are right now.
See, you can't have a one-way love affair. You need to respond to God's love by committing yourself to Jesus Christ with all your heart. How I would love; how I would be honored to help you get that settled this very day. I want to encourage you to meet me at our website ANewStory.com. And there in just a very few minutes I think I can walk you through beginning your relationship with Jesus Christ.
Christ has loved you enough to sacrifice His life for yours; to pursue you with His love, and now to wait patiently for you to respond. Don't risk losing the love that your heart was made for.
