Max Lucado Daily: Keep it Brief
I believe in brevity. And since you've given me a minute of your time, I shouldn't take more than my share. Over the years I've collected some "brief" statements of truth. Share them when you can. But if you do…keep it brief!
Pray all the time. If necessary, use words.
God forgets the past. Imitate Him.
Greed I've often regretted. Generosity-never.
In buying a gift for your wife, practicality can be more expensive than extravagance.
Here's another: Don't ask God to do what you want. Ask God to do what is right.
You'll give up on yourself before God will.
Flattery is fancy dishonesty.
You'll regret opening your mouth. You'll rarely regret keeping it shut.
And I'll close with this one: To see sin without grace is despair. To see grace without sin is arrogance. To see them in tandem is conversion!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Genesis 44
A Silver Cup in a Sack
Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.
3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”
6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.”
11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”
16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 9:1-6
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
Insight
Luke records that Jesus gave the disciples “power and authority” (9:1). He does not relate the specific situations the disciples faced or the people’s reaction to these 12 new miracle workers who were suddenly working in Israel. Instead, Luke simply found it important to record, “So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere” (v.6). Luke’s emphasis was on Jesus. He was the one who gave His disciples the authority. It’s important to remember that power and authority are always His to give.
The Jaws Of Death
By Marvin Williams
They departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. —Luke 9:6
Lauren Kornacki is glad she took that summer CPR class, but she probably never thought she would have to use it so soon and on someone she loves. Her father was repairing his car when the jack slipped and the car fell on him. Lauren, a 22-year-old, reportedly heroically lifted the 3,300-pound car enough to pull him from underneath! Then she kept him alive with CPR until the paramedics arrived.
Far greater than Lauren’s rescue of her father from the jaws of death is Jesus’ rescue of us from the clutches of sin by His death and resurrection. When Jesus sent the 12 disciples to carry out His work, He gave them the assignment to preach the good news of God’s desire to rescue people (Luke 9:1-6). They would not carry this out in their own strength, but Jesus would lift the heavy burden of people’s sin as they taught about Him. Their preaching and healing in Jesus’ power and authority proved that Jesus had actually brought God’s rule to earth.
Many today are trapped under the weight of sin, but our great God can rescue us from underneath those burdens and then send us into the world to tell others that He can set them free.
Thinking It Over
Do you know someone who is trapped under the
burden of sin and needs Jesus’ rescue? In what
practical ways can you be an active agent of Jesus’ love?
Those who’ve been rescued from sin are best able to help in the rescue of others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, July 07, 2014
All Efforts of Worth and Excellence Are Difficult
Enter by the narrow gate . . . . Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life . . . —Matthew 7:13-14
If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all efforts of worth and excellence are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but its difficulty does not make us faint and cave in—it stirs us up to overcome. Do we appreciate the miraculous salvation of Jesus Christ enough to be our utmost for His highest—our best for His glory?
God saves people by His sovereign grace through the atonement of Jesus, and “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). But we have to “work out” that salvation in our everyday, practical living (Philippians 2:12). If we will only start on the basis of His redemption to do what He commands, then we will find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not yet put into practice what God has placed within us. But a crisis will reveal whether or not we have been putting it into practice. If we will obey the Spirit of God and practice in our physical life what God has placed within us by His Spirit, then when a crisis does come we will find that our own nature, as well as the grace of God, will stand by us.
Thank God that He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a joyous thing, but it is also something that requires bravery, courage, and holiness. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10), and God will not shield us from the requirements of sonship. God’s grace produces men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not pampered, spoiled weaklings. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the worthy and excellent life of a disciple of Jesus in the realities of life. And it is always necessary for us to make an effort to live a life of worth and excellence.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, July 07, 2014
Hitting "Enter" - #7171
I've come a long way for a technically challenged person; from never having used a computer to using one of them quite a bit each day. I don't understand all about it, but I know how to use it.
Some lessons I've learned the hard way: Like typing in part of a book or a magazine article or notes of some kind, and then typing in a password to save it with, and then making one fatal mistake. See, apparently you have to hit this little key that says Enter or you won't be seeing that material again. Just because the information appears on the screen doesn't mean you've got it. You have to save it by pressing this Enter command.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hitting 'Enter.'"
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from James 1, beginning at verse 22. God says, "Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does."
Now, these verses are about people who read and hear the Bible a lot. Is that you? Oh, it appears on their mental screen often, but it's people who don't really have it. They read it and then it disappears. See, just hearing and knowing the Word of God does not a Christian make. Just because it's appeared on your screen doesn't make it yours. You've got to hit Enter.
Well, how do you do that? The passage talks about not forgetting what you've read. First of all you have to memorize it. With the pressure that you're under in your life, you've got to know it isn't enough to just have God's Words in your Bible. They've got to be in your heart so you can bring them up on your screen when the pressure's on. You need for Scripture to be a part of your personality, your intuitive responses. That happens when you memorize a promise or a challenge and then you enter it as yours.
I think you are also better able to remember when you write it down. Have you tried keeping a Jesus Journal with your Bible? It's the greatest thing I've ever done in terms of my growth in Christ. After you've read, then you write what God has said to you in your own words and then you write what you're going to do differently that day as a result of what He said. See, you're processing it; you're saving it when you write it. God's words become yours when you use them. During the day, tell someone else the words God has spoken to you. That enters it too. And most of all, you enter the truths of God when you apply what appeared on your Bible screen. In other words you ask yourself, "Lord, what can I apply today to something I'm going to face today?" And then that means that that day you do something that is a specific obedience to what you read in God's Word that morning.
Have you ever wondered how you could have heard so much Bible in your life and still be so far from your spiritual goals? Maybe it's because you've forgotten to press Enter. God's words enter your life forever when you memorize it, when you write it down, when you tell somebody else about it, and when you specifically apply it to your life.
You know, our churches are filled with people who have heard God's Word about what Christ did on the cross, coming out of His grave, our need to pin all our hopes on Jesus and make Him not just the Savior but our personal Savior. And yet those people will not be in heaven, because they knew all about Jesus but they never pressed Enter. They never opened the door of their heart to Jesus and have that saving faith transaction with Him.
If you're not sure you have, I want to invite you to check out our website and let me meet you there to help you know how to begin a relationship with Him for sure. It's ANewStory.com. Take it from someone who has lost information that he couldn't afford to lose. When the message is important, which it always is when it comes from God, make sure you've entered it into your life.
