Max Lucado Daily: Jesus' Seamless Perfection
Scripture often describes our behavior as the clothes we wear. In 1 Peter 5:5, Peter urges us to be "clothed with humility." David speaks of evil people who clothe themselves "with cursing." Garments can symbolize character, and like His garment, Jesus' character was seamless. The character of Jesus was a seamless fabric woven from heaven to earth-from God's thoughts to Jesus' actions. From God's tears to Jesus' compassion. From God's word to Jesus' response. All one piece. A picture of the character of Jesus.
But when Christ was nailed to the cross, He took off His robe of seamless perfection and assumed a different wardrobe. He wore our sin so we could wear His righteousness.
From He Chose the Nails
Judges 1
Israel Fights the Remaining Canaanites
After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Canaanites?”
2 The Lord answered, “Judah shall go up; I have given the land into their hands.”
3 The men of Judah then said to the Simeonites their fellow Israelites, “Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.” So the Simeonites went with them.
4 When Judah attacked, the Lord gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek. 5 It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites. 6 Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
7 Then Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8 The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire.
9 After that, Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev and the western foothills. 10 They advanced against the Canaanites living in Hebron (formerly called Kiriath Arba) and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai. 11 From there they advanced against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher).
12 And Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Aksah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.” 13 Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Aksah to him in marriage.
14 One day when she came to Othniel, she urged him[a] to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What can I do for you?”
15 She replied, “Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.
16 The descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms[b] with the people of Judah to live among the inhabitants of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.
17 Then the men of Judah went with the Simeonites their fellow Israelites and attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they totally destroyed[c] the city. Therefore it was called Hormah.[d] 18 Judah also took[e] Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron—each city with its territory.
19 The Lord was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron. 20 As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak. 21 The Benjamites, however, did not drive out the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.
22 Now the tribes of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the Lord was with them. 23 When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz), 24 the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, “Show us how to get into the city and we will see that you are treated well.” 25 So he showed them, and they put the city to the sword but spared the man and his whole family. 26 He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.
27 But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. 28 When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. 29 Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. 30 Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, so these Canaanites lived among them, but Zebulun did subject them to forced labor. 31 Nor did Asher drive out those living in Akko or Sidon or Ahlab or Akzib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob. 32 The Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land because they did not drive them out. 33 Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them. 34 The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. 35 And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the tribes of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor. 36 The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion Pass to Sela and beyond.
Judges 1:14 Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate Othniel, he urged her
Judges 1:16 That is, Jericho
Judges 1:17 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
Judges 1:17 Hormah means destruction.
Judges 1:18 Hebrew; Septuagint Judah did not take
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 05, 2015
Read: 1 Corinthians 13:4-13
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[a] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[b] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes:
13:8 Or in tongues.
13:12 Greek see face to face.
INSIGHT: In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is extolling the value of love, but it is not just any kind of love. In Greek, there are a variety of words for love that range in meaning from physical to fraternal. Here, the word translated “love” is agape, which speaks of supreme love—the kind that sacrifices itself for the one loved. This is the love God demonstrated for us by giving His Son to pay the price for our sins (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8).
Start With Me
By Dave Branon
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. —Philippians 2:4
I call them Mell Notes—little comments my daughter Melissa made in her Bible to help her apply a passage to her life.
In Matthew 7, for instance, she had drawn a box around verses 1 and 2 that talk about not judging others because, when you do, “with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” Next to it she wrote this Mell Note: “Look at what you are doing before you look at others.”
Melissa was an “others-oriented” teen. She lived the words of Philippians 2:4. Her classmate Matt, who knew her from church nursery through her final days in the eleventh grade when she died in a car accident, said of Melissa at her memorial service: “I don’t think I ever saw you without a smile or something that brightened up people’s days.” Her friend Tara said this: “Thanks for being my friend, even when no one else was as nice and cheerful as you.”
In a day in which harsh judgment of others seems to be the rule, it’s good to remember that love starts with us. The words of Paul come to mind: “Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13).
What a difference we’ll make if, when we look at others, we say, “Love starts with me.” And wouldn’t that be a great reflection of God’s love for us?
Lord, thank You for the great love You lavished on us when You sent Your Son to die and be resurrected so that we could be with You eternally. In response, help us to love others. Lord, we want to be like You.
Embracing God’s love for us is the key to loving others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 05, 2015
Is He Really My Lord?
…so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus… —Acts 20:24
Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing. The joy our Lord experienced came from doing what the Father sent Him to do. And He says to us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). Have you received a ministry from the Lord? If so, you must be faithful to it— to consider your life valuable only for the purpose of fulfilling that ministry. Knowing that you have done what Jesus sent you to do, think how satisfying it will be to hear Him say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). We each have to find a niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive a ministry from the Lord. To do this we must have close fellowship with Jesus and must know Him as more than our personal Savior. And we must be willing to experience the full impact of Acts 9:16 — “I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
“Do you love Me?” Then, “Feed My sheep” (John 21:17). He is not offering us a choice of how we can serve Him; He is asking for absolute loyalty to His commission, a faithfulness to what we discern when we are in the closest possible fellowship with God. If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is not the same as the call— the need is the opportunity to exercise the call. The call is to be faithful to the ministry you received when you were in true fellowship with Him. This does not imply that there is a whole series of differing ministries marked out for you. It does mean that you must be sensitive to what God has called you to do, and this may sometimes require ignoring demands for service in other areas.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 05, 2015
Too Precious To Waste - #7344
Maybe it's somewhere during your senior year of high school you begin to develop this priceless trait called perspective. I know that Chris did. One day just before a football game, he stopped me and he said, "You know, Ron, you told me something when I was a freshman and I didn't believe it then. And now I do. You said, 'You're going to blink, and suddenly you're going to be a senior.'" And I told him at the time, "You know, Chris, it looks like high school is going to be forever. You're only a freshmen. But believe me, it will be gone so fast!"
And Chris looked me in the eye and he said, "Ron, where did high school go? It did go that fast!" That was funny! I think I was 45, and I was asking, "Where did 45 years go...not four years of high school." I look at my children all grown up. It's like, "Where is that little girl I carried? Where is that little boy at play?" You know, the sooner you realize how fast life is moving, the better you will live it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Too Precious To Waste."
It's no wonder when someone asked Reverend Billy Graham what the greatest surprise of his life has been. He said, "The brevity of it." Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 90, and I'll begin reading at verse 10. Moses says in his psalm here, "The length of our days is seventy years-or eighty if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass." Sounds like Chris looking back at high school doesn't it? "But they quickly pass, and we fly away." I get that feeling.
And then Psalm 90:12, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Moses seems to be saying here, "When you realize how fast life goes by, you discover the preciousness of a day." He says his response to life racing by is this, "Lord, I want to wisely know what the best thing is to do with this day. Help me to number my days; make every day count. Help me not to waste this one, Lord." What a great way to wake up in the morning and make part of your morning ritual, to say, "Lord, I've got a day from you again. Thank you. Help me not to waste this one. It's too precious to waste; those days go too fast. This isn't just another day; this is a day not like any other I'll ever have. I'll never have this 24 hours again."
Take parenting for example. Don't look at your child's life like their whole life. Have a good day with your son or your daughter. Today do they know the boundaries? Today do they know I love them? Have I shown it to them today? Today have I in some way impressed upon them that Jesus is right here with us; an active part of our life in our home? Today do they know they're special? As a parent, make this day count. Then you don't panic over the big chunks of time like what's going to happen over the next few months; what's going to happen over the next few years? Have a good day.
How about sharing Christ with someone you care about whose eternity is at stake in knowing about the Good News about Jesus? Maybe there'll be a moment of openness and opportunity that may never be there again, because of something going on in your life, or in their life, or in the world. Making a difference: deciding whether you want to live your life to make a difference, to advance God's kingdom and to seek first His kingdom or just be working on yours.
There's a great old song. It says, "Make me a blessing to someone today." That's a pretty good prayer. How about getting ready to be with Jesus by spending time with Him now? Make sure you know Him better today than you did yesterday, and tomorrow better than you do today. I'll tell you what, if you haven't already, you're going to look back and you'll go, "Where did it all go?" Well, right now you want to say, "I don't know how many days I have left, but every one of them is going to count." We need to be having invested days.
A day is too precious to waste; only to be spent for the people, for the causes that will matter forever. Invest this day in something eternal!