Max Lucado Daily: Who Says We Can't Change?
Here's some good news. You aren't stuck with today's personality. You aren't condemned to "grumpydom." You are tweak-able! So what if you were born a bigot? You don't have to die one.
Where did we get the idea we can't change? Where do statements come from such as, "It's just my nature to worry," or. . . "I'll always be pessimistic. I'm just that way." Or, "I have a bad temper. I can't help the way I react?" Who says? Would we say, "it's just my nature to have a broken leg. I can't do anything about it." Of course not. If our body malfunctions, we seek help. Shouldn't we do the same with our hearts? Can't we seek aid for our sour attitudes? Of course we can. Jesus can change our hearts! He wants us to have a heart like his!
From Just Like Jesus
Luke 17:20-37
The Coming of the Kingdom
One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”
Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs.[a] 21 You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.[b]”
22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns,[c] but you won’t see it. 23 People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here he is,’ but don’t go out and follow them. 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day[d] when the Son of Man comes. 25 But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly[e] and be rejected by this generation.
26 “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 27 In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— 29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. 32 Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! 33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. 34 That night two people will be asleep in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.[f]”
37 “Where will this happen, Lord?”[g] the disciples asked.
Jesus replied, “Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.”[h]
Footnotes:
17:20 Or by your speculations.
17:21 Or is within you, or is in your grasp.
17:22 Or long for even one day with the Son of Man. “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
17:24 Some manuscripts do not include on the day.
17:25 Or suffer many things.
17:35 Some manuscripts add verse 36, Two men will be working in the field; one will be taken, the other left. Compare Matt 24:40.
17:37a Greek “Where, Lord?”
17:37b Greek “Wherever the carcass is, the vultures gather.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Read: Philippians 4:10-20
Paul’s Thanks for Their Gifts
How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. 11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ,[a] who gives me strength. 14 Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.
15 As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. 16 Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. 17 I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness.
18 At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
20 Now all glory to God our Father forever and ever! Amen.
Footnotes:
4:13 Greek through the one.
INSIGHT: Paul says, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content . . . . I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (4:11,13). Paul’s contentment came from the sufficiency of knowing Christ, not from the gifts he received from the Philippian believers (vv. 14-17). However, these sacrificial gifts were a “sweet-smelling aroma” to God (v. 18; see Lev. 7:12-15).
Fragrant Living
By Joe Stowell
I am full, having received . . . the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma . . . well pleasing to God. —Philippians 4:18
I’m grateful that God has given us the sense of smell so we can enjoy the many fragrances of life. I think of how much I enjoy something as simple as the fresh and inviting aroma of after-shave lotion in the morning. Or the mellow smell of fresh-cut grass in the spring. I especially enjoy sitting in the backyard when the delicate scent of my favorite roses fills the air. And then there are the savory aromas of delicious food.
So it catches my attention when the apostle Paul says that our generous acts of love toward others are like a “sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God” (Phil. 4:18). When we think of helping those in need, we usually think of it as the right thing to do—or even the Christlike thing to do. But Paul says that our intentional act of reaching out to meet someone’s need actually fills the throne room of God with a fragrance that brings pleasure to Him.
We can please God with the aromas that rise from being a blessing to others! What an added incentive this is for us to perform deeds of kindness in His name.
Who might need your act of kindness today? Ask God to lead you to someone. Be a blessing. It’s a fragrant thing to do!
Here is what I hope to do for others today: "Reflect the freeing light of Christ to my neighbor."
Blessing others is a blessing to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
His Resurrection Destiny
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? —Luke 24:26
Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.
Christ’s resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life— a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we will have a body like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).
Jesus prayed, “…as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him” (John 17:2). The term Holy Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us, if we will only obey Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
How Losing Trust Can Lose a Soul - #7368
There he was in the homes of some ten million Americans every night - NBC's TV news anchorman. The voice that millions trust, or did trust. The most experienced, most watched anchorman in the country facing the worst possible question, "Can we believe him?"
Because of dramatic stories that he told about his assignments in the Middle East and during Hurricane Katrina; except in different tellings, there were different accounts. Accounts challenged by people who actually were there. So an anchorman had lost the one thing that a man with that kind of influence really can't do without - trust. I mean, if you're reporting important news, credibility is everything, especially if that news is life-or-death information from God.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Losing Trust Can Lose a Soul."
The Gospel! That's what it's called. That means "Good News." It is the only news in the world on which eternities depend. The Bible says in Romans 1:16 (NLT), "This Good News about Christ...is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes."
And every follower of Jesus is God's embedded reporter of that news to the people in their circle of influence - at work, at school, where you live, where you play, where you shop. It's spelled out really clearly and powerfully in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 19-20. "He gave us this wonderful message...we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!'"
When you're the one responsible to report the Ultimate Story - God's Story - there's one thing you can't afford to lose - trust - because your life doesn't back it up. A person has to first trust the messenger usually before they will trust the message. So most people who come to Jesus do it because of a Christian they know. And most people who reject Jesus do it because of a Christian they know.
Your life, my life is either a magnet that attracts a lost person to Jesus, or it's an excuse for them to walk away from Him. In so doing, to walk possibly into an eternity without Him. So, I really need to constantly ask myself, "Is my life backing up the message? What is there in my life, what is there in the way I talk, what is there in the way I treat people, what is there in my attitude that contradicts what Jesus is like?"
Like lying for example. Like talking behind someone's back. Is that part of the you that people know where you're the ambassador? How about that short fuse? The dirty joke? A mean spirit? A selfish attitude? "Checking out" women? Hurting words? It could be just that "me first" vibe you give out. A critical spirit? No time to stop for the wounded person? That just so contradicts everything you say about Jesus.
And if I've lost their trust by my hypocrisy, I need to seek their forgiveness. Because I failed to show them how real Jesus is. I want to be a reason for people to trust Jesus, because they could trust me.
