Max Lucado Daily: A Voluntary Act of Gratitude
Worship happens when you are aware that what you've been given is far greater than what you can give. Worship is the awareness that were it not for God's touch, you'd still be hobbling and hurting, bitter and broken. It is the glazed expression on the parched face of a desert pilgrim who discovers the oasis is not a mirage.
We have tried to make a science out of worship. We can't do that! We can't do that any more than we can sell love or negotiate peace. Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer. If you and I can go days without feeling an urge to say "thank you" to the One who saved, healed, and delivered us, then we would do well to remember what He did!
From In the Eye of the Storm
Exodus 27
The Altar of Burnt Offering
“Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits[a] high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.[b] 2 Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. 3 Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. 4 Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network. 5 Put it under the ledge of the altar so that it is halfway up the altar. 6 Make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze. 7 The poles are to be inserted into the rings so they will be on two sides of the altar when it is carried. 8 Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.
The Courtyard
9 “Make a courtyard for the tabernacle. The south side shall be a hundred cubits[c] long and is to have curtains of finely twisted linen, 10 with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases and with silver hooks and bands on the posts. 11 The north side shall also be a hundred cubits long and is to have curtains, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.
12 “The west end of the courtyard shall be fifty cubits[d] wide and have curtains, with ten posts and ten bases. 13 On the east end, toward the sunrise, the courtyard shall also be fifty cubits wide. 14 Curtains fifteen cubits[e] long are to be on one side of the entrance, with three posts and three bases, 15 and curtains fifteen cubits long are to be on the other side, with three posts and three bases.
16 “For the entrance to the courtyard, provide a curtain twenty cubits[f] long, of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen—the work of an embroiderer—with four posts and four bases. 17 All the posts around the courtyard are to have silver bands and hooks, and bronze bases. 18 The courtyard shall be a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide,[g] with curtains of finely twisted linen five cubits[h] high, and with bronze bases. 19 All the other articles used in the service of the tabernacle, whatever their function, including all the tent pegs for it and those for the courtyard, are to be of bronze.
Oil for the Lampstand
20 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. 21 In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 25, 2014
Read: Acts 1:1-11
Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Footnotes:
Acts 1:5 Or in
Acts 1:5 Or in
More Than Waiting
By Anne Cetas
A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father. —John 16:16
I don’t know how it works where you live, but when I have to call for a repair for one of my appliances, the company says something like, “The repairman will be there between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.” Since I don’t know when the repair person will arrive, all I can do is wait.
Jesus told His followers that He would soon be leaving them and they would need to wait for His return in “a little while” (John 16:16). After His resurrection, they saw Him again and they hoped He would be establishing His kingdom on earth at that time. But He told them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority” (Acts 1:7). They would have to wait even longer.
But they were to do more than wait. Jesus told His followers that they were to “be witnesses to [Him] in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (v.8). And He gave them the Holy Spirit to empower them to do this.
We still wait for Jesus’ return. And while we do, it’s our delight, in the Holy Spirit’s power, to tell and show others who He is, what He has done for all of us through His death and resurrection, and that He has promised to return.
Dear Lord, we love You so much. We want
our words and our lives to be a witness
of Your goodness and grace. Please use
us in ways we never thought possible.
Wait and witness till Jesus returns.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 25, 2014
Sacrifice and Friendship
I have called you friends . . . —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if . . . !” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . .” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends. . . .” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 25, 2014
What's Keeping the Courier? - #7206
Well our mail came today, and yesterday, and the day before yesterday. Big deal, right? It comes most days. It's a big deal. Yeah, the post office has this
motto and they try their best to follow through on it. It's a promise to keep, and it's not an easy one. You know, "Neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor
darkness of night shall stay these couriers from their appointed rounds." Things that need to get through to you usually do. And these people do their best
to keep their promise to get it there no matter what's in the way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What's Keeping the Courier?"
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Daniel 10. The Bible occasionally pulls the curtain back and gives us a peek at what's going on in the
spiritual world that surrounds our own. There's this unseen realm of spiritual battles between the forces of God and the forces of darkness. It's a realm
we can't see, but it's affecting our everyday lives.
Well, in this instance, Daniel knew that God had a message; a vision for him that was to be proclaimed to his generation and to ours through the Scripture
that he wrote. But it wasn't coming. Verse 2, "At that time, I Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food, no meat or wine touched my lips. I
used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. Then on the twenty-fourth day of the first month as I was standing on the bank of the great river,
I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of the finest gold around his waist." And the Bible goes on to describe this
magnificent, angelic figure.
In verse 12 that figure says, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your
God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them." Okay, then what was the delay? He says, "The prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me 21
days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there with the King of Persia." It's a pretty extraordinary passage.
"Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."
Okay, here's what's going on here. Daniel prayed for the message he needed. God, according to the angel, granted that immediately, gave it to His courier
angel to deliver.
And a messenger from hell, referred to here as the prince of the Persian Kingdom, battled the messenger from heaven to keep him from delivering it. So God
sent reinforcements and Satan's grip was broken.
You know what made the difference? Apparently it was because Daniel used supernatural weapons to get his answer, not even knowing the unseen forces who
were fighting over it. What does this have to do with you and me right now? Well, it may explain what's happened to your answer to prayer. Why something
God wants you to have has not yet been delivered. Because the Devil may be determined to stay God's courier from delivering what God has already granted to
you.
Now, we can't see. We probably shouldn't even try to guess what's happening in the war between God's angels and hell's hinderers. But we should learn from
Daniel what our part is in the battle: intense, focused, relentless, sacrificial prayer and fasting as God leads us, to focus just on God and His power.
Honestly, sometimes we have to break the hindering hold of Satan and only prayer can do that.
So if you sense that it's time for a breakthrough in your church, or in your life, or in your family, commit yourself to a season of extraordinary prayer.
Because, as Jesus promised in Matthew 18:18, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven." Although Satan is our primary enemy, don't focus your praying on him. No, you focus on the Lord, Jesus Christ, the power of His name, the power of
His shed blood, and the power of His resurrection. We are in this battle together with Him.
And remember, for those who wage war under the banner of Jesus and His death on the cross, nothing can stay God's couriers from their appointed rounds.
