Max Lucado Daily: God Cannot Be Contained
Most people have small thoughts about God. In an effort to see God as our friend, we have lost his immensity. In our desire to understand him, we have sought to contain him.
The God of the Bible cannot be contained. With a word he called Adam out of dust and Eve out of a bone. He consulted no committee. He sought no counsel. He has authority over the world and. . .He has authority over your world. He’s never surprised. He has never, ever uttered the phrase, “How did that happen?”
God’s goodness is a major headline in the Bible. If He were only mighty, we would salute Him. But since He is merciful and mighty, we can approach Him. If God is at once Father and Creator, holy—unlike us—and high above us, then we at any point are only a prayer away from help!
Before Amen
Mark 11:1-18
Jesus’ Triumphant Entry
As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2 “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it soon.’”
4 The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door. 5 As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.
8 Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,
“Praise God![a]
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David!
Praise God in highest heaven!”[b]
11 So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. 14 Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it.
Jesus Clears the Temple
15 When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, 16 and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace.[c] 17 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”[d]
18 When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching.
Footnotes:
11:9 Greek Hosanna, an exclamation of praise that literally means “save now”; also in 11:10.
11:9-10 Pss 118:25-26; 148:1.
11:16 Or from carrying merchandise through the Temple.
11:17 Isa 56:7; Jer 7:11.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Read: Psalm 139:13-24
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me,[a] O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!
19 O God, if only you would destroy the wicked!
Get out of my life, you murderers!
20 They blaspheme you;
your enemies misuse your name.
21 O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you?
Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you?
22 Yes, I hate them with total hatred,
for your enemies are my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Footnotes:
139:17 Or How precious to me are your thoughts.
Insight
In Psalm 139, David invites us to meditate on the attributes of God. He is omniscient, or all-knowing (vv.1-4); omnipresent, or ever-present (vv.5-12); and omnipotent, or all-powerful (vv.13-18). In today’s text, David writes of the human body as a masterpiece created by the all-powerful Creator. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (vv.13-15). Mindful of the wickedness around him (vv.19-22), David closes his psalm with a prayer of loyalty and commitment (vv.23-24).
Clean The Closet
By Joe Stowell
Search me, O God, and know my heart. —Psalm 139:23
To this day I can still hear my mother telling me to go and clean up my room. Dutifully, I would go to my room to start the process, only to get distracted by reading the comic book that I was supposed to put neatly in the stack. But soon the distraction was interrupted by my mother warning that she would be up in 5 minutes to inspect the room. Unable to effectively clean the room in that time, I would proceed to hide everything I didn’t know what to do with in the closet, make the bed, and then wait for her to come in—hoping that she wouldn’t look in the closet.
This reminds me of what many of us do with our lives. We clean up the outside of our lives hoping that no one will look into the “closet” where we have hidden our sins by rationalization and excuses and by blaming others for our own faults.
The problem is that while looking good on the outside, we remain well aware of the mess on the inside. The psalmist encourages us to submit to the cleansing inspection of God: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23-24). Let’s invite Him to inspect and cleanse every corner of our lives.
Lord, forgive me for looking good on the
outside while attempting to hide my faults and
failings. I desire for You to cleanse my life so
that I may walk with You in full integrity.
We can own up to our wrongs— because we can’t hide them from God anyway.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Nothing of the Old Life!
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new —2 Corinthians 5:17
Our Lord never tolerates our prejudices— He is directly opposed to them and puts them to death. We tend to think that God has some special interest in our particular prejudices, and are very sure that He will never deal with us as He has to deal with others. We even say to ourselves, “God has to deal with other people in a very strict way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.” But we must learn that God accepts nothing of the old life! Instead of being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately removing them from us. It is part of our moral education to see our prejudices put to death by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.
When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is nothing remaining of the old life. Our old gloomy outlook disappears, as does our old attitude toward things, and “all things are of God” (2 Corinthians 5:18). How are we going to get a life that has no lust, no self-interest, and is not sensitive to the ridicule of others? How will we have the type of love that “is kind . . . is not provoked, [and] thinks no evil”? (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). The only way is by allowing nothing of the old life to remain, and by having only simple, perfect trust in God— such a trust that we no longer want God’s blessings, but only want God Himself. Have we come to the point where God can withdraw His blessings from us without our trust in Him being affected? Once we truly see God at work, we will never be concerned again about the things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in heaven, whom the world cannot see.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Music When You Least Expect It - #7249
I'm the early riser in our family, so it's not uncommon for me to be in the bathroom around 6:00 in the morning; only one awake. Even when our children were at home I made a science of being quiet in the morning so I didn't wake up my wife or anyone else who was sleeping.
One morning I was half awake, and I was startled when I suddenly heard the gentle strains of a song. I didn't have a radio on or anything, and I'd never heard this in the bathroom before. I'm thinking, "What's going on?" And I recognized the song, "It's a Small World After All." Well, I'm in this dazed condition. I couldn't figure out where the music was coming from. Is there a radio on? An alarm? I searched high and low. And finally I found out where the music was coming from. It was coming from the toilet paper. Yeah, the roll of toilet tissue in the bathroom! See, my wife had rigged the tissue with this (This will tell you something about her.) little device that plays a song every time you rolled it. You go, "Oh, no!" Let me tell you, that music was very unexpected. It got my attention and I have to tell you, it brightened up a pretty bleary time of day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Music When You Least Expect It."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 16:22. Paul and Silas have been preaching the gospel. The town got incensed over it. The crowd's been attacking them. It has not been a good day. It says, "The crowds joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet to the stocks." Now, it's just getting worse and worse here.
Then it says, "About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the other prisoners were listening to them." God sends a very violent and dramatic earthquake at this point that lets Paul and the other prisoners loose. And ultimately it led to the jailer and his family dramatically turning to Christ.
But let's go back to the part about Paul and Silas singing at midnight. You think, "Wait! Something is wrong in this picture. They can't move. They're flogged, imprisoned, stripped, and they're singing? What's going on here?" I mean, I would expect to read that Paul and Silas were complaining at midnight. But there's not something wrong in this picture. There's something very right.
Like that little song in the bathroom. This is music when you least expect it. Not at a time of victory or prosperity. It couldn't have come from anything going on around them. It had to come from inside them.
Now, there's another way that this midnight concert was like that early morning bathroom concert. It got people's attention! It says the other prisoners were listening. You bet they were. I mean, here's someone facing the same hardships you are, except they're doing it with joy rather than attitude. Maybe you're going through one of life's long nights right now and you've taken a beating. Maybe you've been stripped of things you care about. You're in one of those prisons that doesn't have walls. How are you handling it? Are you like all the other prisoners? Or is the Christ inside of you, giving you the grace to sing when you otherwise would sink?
See, positiveness and joy are not feelings, they're a choice. I call it the "rejoice choice." You focus on your Lord as they were with these hymns. You fill up on Christian music. You quote the verses. You quote the promises. Then you focus on your opportunity. Paul and Silas probably looked around and said, "Whoa, we've got a captive audience. Literally there are people watching us now that will see how we respond to this."
People watch you when you're in the midnight darkness more than any other time. The greatest impact of your life comes at the time of your greatest pain. If you let God take this moment, He will give you unexplainable grace and unexplainable joy that will lift you and everyone around you.
My musical surprise came early in the morning, not late at night. But I know that no one can ignore your life if it produces music at midnight; music when it's dark, music when they least expect it.
