Max Lucado Daily: Potential Time with God
Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." Imagine considering every moment as a potential time of communion with God. Try being silent with God.
By the time your life is over, you'll have spent six months at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, a year and a half looking for lost stuff (double that in my case), and a whopping five years standing in various lines.
Why don't you give these moments to God? By giving God your whispering thoughts, the common becomes uncommon. Simple phrases such as "Thank you, Father"…"Be sovereign in this hour, O Lord"… "You are my resting place, Jesus"…can turn a commute into a pilgrimage. You don't have to leave your office or your kitchen. Just pray where you are. Let the kitchen become a cathedral or the classroom a chapel. Give God your whispering thoughts.
From Just Like Jesus
Luke 19:1-27
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
The Parable of the Ten Minas
11 While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. 12 He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.[a] ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’
14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’
15 “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
16 “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
18 “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
19 “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’
20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’
24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
25 “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 27 But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”
Footnotes:
Luke 19:13 A mina was about three months’ wages.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Read: Joshua 5:13–6:5
The Lord’s Commander Confronts Joshua
When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”
14 “Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”
At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.
The Fall of Jericho
6 Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. 2 But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. 3 You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. 4 Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. 5 When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”
Facing The Impossible
By Marion Stroud
See! I have given Jericho into your hand. —Joshua 6:2
In 2008, house values were tumbling in the United Kingdom. But 2 weeks after my husband and I put our home of 40 years on the market, a buyer offered us a good price and we agreed to a sale. Soon our builders started work on the house I had inherited, which would be our new home. But a few days before the sale of our old home was finalized, our buyer pulled out. We were devastated. Now we owned two properties—one whose value was tumbling rapidly, and the other a virtual ruin that we could neither sell nor move into. Until we found a new buyer, we had no money to pay the builder. It was an impossible situation.
When Joshua faced Jericho, a fortified city in lockdown, he may have felt as if he was facing an impossible situation (Josh. 5:13–6:27). But then a Man with a drawn sword appeared to him. Some theologians think the Man was Jesus Himself. Joshua anxiously asked if He would be backing the Israelites or their enemies in the forthcoming battle. “‘Neither one,’ he replied. ‘I am the commander of the Lord’s army’” (5:14 nlt). Joshua bowed in worship before he took another step. He still didn’t know how Jericho would be delivered into his hand, but he listened to God and worshiped Him. Then he obeyed the Lord’s instructions and the impossible happened.
Dear Lord, often when I am faced with an impossible situation I choose worry rather than trust. Help me to trust You and to remember that nothing is too hard for You.
Nothing is impossible for the Lord.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Don’t Hurt the Lord
Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? —John 14:9
Our Lord must be repeatedly astounded at us— astounded at how “un-simple” we are. It is our own opinions that make us dense and slow to understand, but when we are simple we are never dense; we have discernment all the time. Philip expected the future revelation of a tremendous mystery, but not in Jesus, the Person he thought he already knew. The mystery of God is not in what is going to be— it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the future in some overwhelming, momentous event. We have no reluctance to obey Jesus, but it is highly probable that we are hurting Him by what we ask— “Lord, show us the Father…” (John 14:8). His response immediately comes back to us as He says, “Can’t you see Him? He is always right here or He is nowhere to be found.” We look for God to exhibit Himself to His children, but God only exhibits Himself in His children. And while others see the evidence, the child of God does not. We want to be fully aware of what God is doing in us, but we cannot have complete awareness and expect to remain reasonable or balanced in our expectations of Him. If all we are asking God to give us is experiences, and the awareness of those experiences is blocking our way, we hurt the Lord. The very questions we ask hurt Jesus, because they are not the questions of a child.
“Let not your heart be troubled…” (14:1, 27). Am I then hurting Jesus by allowing my heart to be troubled? If I believe in Jesus and His attributes, am I living up to my belief? Am I allowing anything to disturb my heart, or am I allowing any questions to come in which are unsound or unbalanced? I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
The Verdict On Our Eternity - #7377
It's hard to believe it's been some twenty years, because the whole country was really fixated on the trial. It was 1:00 P.M., Tuesday, October 4, 1995, and America came to a sudden stop. Everyone was waiting for the O. J. Simpson verdict. Nine months of the most watched, most analyzed trial in history. And then, the jury's got a verdict, and the judge announced that we couldn't hear the verdict yet. See, it was placed in a sealed envelope. We had to wait until the next day to find out.
Everybody was guessing about it, and then as the verdict envelope arrived, America literally stopped to hear it. I mean, there was this huge power surge in New York City as thousands of TVs came on at once. And all across the country, usually busy streets were strangely un-crowded. Long distance calls dropped by 60%. Now, the verdict will no doubt be debated - has been for years. But one thing is sure. We were obsessed with knowing what the verdict was.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about the "The Verdict On Our Eternity."
You and I wouldn't be any different no matter what the verdict for O. J. Simpson was. But there is a verdict that really does affect you, because it determines where you will spend eternity. It's God's verdict on you. Was I good enough? Will I get to heaven when I die? Guilty or not guilty with God?
See, the verdict is not in an envelope. It's in an open book. In fact I've got it right in front of me here. You have the right to find out God's verdict on you. So our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 3:19 says, "Every mouth will be silenced; the whole world held accountable to God. No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law." That means doing good things.
Chapter 3, verse 2, "There is no one righteous, not even one." Everyone is guilty. Verse 22 says, "There is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That's verse 23. The verdict is in on each of us - "Guilty before God." We've broken His laws over and over. We've hijacked a life that our Creator gave us and run it ourselves. We have been our own god. Not only is the verdict in, but the sentence has been pronounced.
In Romans 6:23 it says, "The wages of sin is death." Some of us will plead the good we've done. It's not enough. No one righteous, not one! See, a death penalty cannot be paid by doing good. Someone has to die. And a sentence in a word for our sin is hell. But this reading of the verdict is followed by this amazing offer of a pardon. It says in the next verses, "We are justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus through faith in His blood." In other words, someone has come to pay your death penalty - God's own Son. So our only hope of being right with God, of ever going to heaven, is placing all our hope in Jesus Christ; the one who died in our place as our substitute.
See, if you think your religion or your goodness is going to satisfy God's verdict, the Bible says it won't. Why would Jesus die on a cross if there was a way you could possibly get to God on your own? Jesus died so He could forgive your sin and erase it from God's Book and trade that death penalty that you and I deserve for the eternal life we could never deserve.
But you do have to put your total trust in Jesus to be your Savior. Have you ever done that? If you're not sure you have, don't risk another day without Him. I invite you to go to our website, and there I've laid out as simply as I can how you can be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
The bad news is we are all guilty. The sentence is death. But if you belong to Jesus Christ, if you put your trust in Him, the Son of God is your defense attorney who stands before His Father giving the verdict of "not guilty" and you will go to the heaven He has prepared for you.
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