Max Lucado Daily: God Will Judge
God occupies the only seat on the supreme court of heaven. He wears the robe and refuses to share the gavel. Paul wrote in Romans 12:19, "Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. 'I'll do the judging,' says God. 'I'll take care of it.'"
Vigilantes displace and replace God. I'm not sure you can handle this one, Lord. You may punish too little or too slowly. I'll take this into my hands, thank you. Is this what you want to say? Jesus didn't. No one had a clearer sense of right and wrong than the perfect Son of God. In 1 Peter 2:23 we're reminded, "When He suffered, He didn't make any threats but left everything to the one who judges fairly." Only God assesses accurate judgments. Perfect justice. Vengeance is His job. Leave your enemies in God's hands!
From Facing Your Giants
Psalm 11
For the choir director: A psalm of David.
I trust in the Lord for protection.
So why do you say to me,
“Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!
2 The wicked are stringing their bows
and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings.
They shoot from the shadows
at those whose hearts are right.
3 The foundations of law and order have collapsed.
What can the righteous do?”
4 But the Lord is in his holy Temple;
the Lord still rules from heaven.
He watches everyone closely,
examining every person on earth.
5 The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked.
He hates those who love violence.
6 He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked,
punishing them with scorching winds.
7 For the righteous Lord loves justice.
The virtuous will see his face.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, July 24, 2015
Read: Luke 22:54-65
Peter Denies Jesus
So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance. 55 The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. 56 A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she said, “This man was one of Jesus’ followers!”
57 But Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!”
58 After a while someone else looked at him and said, “You must be one of them!”
“No, man, I’m not!” Peter retorted.
59 About an hour later someone else insisted, “This must be one of them, because he is a Galilean, too.”
60 But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.
61 At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” 62 And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.
63 The guards in charge of Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64 They blindfolded him and said, “Prophesy to us! Who hit you that time?” 65 And they hurled all sorts of terrible insults at him.
Insight:
Luke’s inspired account of the life of Jesus reflects Luke’s profession as a physician. He alone is the only gospel writer who records that while Jesus was praying on the night before He was arrested “his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (v. 44 niv). This unusual detail underscores the amazing demonstration of love seen in Christ’s suffering for us. Additionally, only Luke records that Jesus healed the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest who had been attacked by Peter (vv. 50-51). Both of these details reflect the knowledge of a medical person.
Speak Up
By Randy Kilgore
Having arrested [Jesus], they led Him and brought Him into the high priest’s house. But Peter followed at a distance. —Luke 22:54
When I hear stories about young people who have been bullied, I notice there are always at least two levels of hurt. The first and most obvious comes from the mean-spirited nature of those actually doing the bullying. That’s terrible on its own. But there’s another, deeper hurt that may end up being even more damaging than the first: The silence of everyone else.
It hurts the one being bullied because they’re stunned that no one will help. That often makes bullies more brazen, leading them to intensify their meanness. Worse, it heightens the embarrassment, false shame, and loneliness of the victim. So it is imperative to speak up for others and speak out against the behavior (see Prov. 31:8a).
While others may not understand fully, Jesus does.
Jesus knows precisely what it feels like to be bullied and to be left to suffer completely alone. Without cause, He was arrested, beaten, and mocked (Luke 22:63-65). Matthew 26:56 says that “all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” Peter, one of His closest friends, even denied three times that he knew Him (Luke 22:61). While others may not understand fully, Jesus does.
When we see others being hurt, we can ask Him for the courage to speak up.
Make us brave, Lord, for those who need our courage. Help us to speak for others and show them that You know their hurt and loneliness.
The voice of a courageous Christian is an echo of the voice of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 24, 2015
His Nature and Our Motives
…unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 5:20
The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to place within anyone who would let Him a new heredity that would have a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is saying, “If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts of your mind.” Your motives must be so pure that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke. Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for Him to rebuke? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that through His redemption He can place within anyone His own nature and make that person as pure and as simple as a child. The purity that God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is exactly what Jesus has undertaken to do through His redemption.
No one can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations— He gives us His teachings which are truths that can only be interpreted by His nature which He places within us. The great wonder of Jesus Christ’s salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature— He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 24, 2015
The Most Important Thing Jesus Asks You To Do - #7445
Sherry's family, who she loves very much, they live in Minnesota, and that's where Sherry lived. She had a home church and a place to work until she decided to move to Arizona. Why, you ask? Why would a young woman to-tally relocate her life to a place where she doesn't have a job and doesn't know many people? One reason: my youngest son. She was about to be his serious girlfriend. And Arizona would just happen to be where our son lived. He worked with Native American young people there. And it should come as no surprise that she wanted to be where the man she loves was. She rearrang-ed her whole life to be with him, and now she's our daughter-in-law!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Thing Jesus Asks You To Do."
We're going to begin with Mark 3:13. "Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to Him those He wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach..." This is kind of a drum roll moment. I imagine a lot of people wanted to be Jesus' disciples. And Jesus comes down after being with His Father and has His Father's names that really should be the ones who are His disciples. And I'm sure they're all wondering, "Who's He going to call?" And these guys – these twelve people that He calls – their lives will never be the same. Eventually because of what Jesus will do through these very ordinary men, the world will never be the same.
Now for the job description. That's what I want to know, man. Jesus has just said, "I'm on the team." What's my number one assignment? "He appointed twelve that they might be with Him," and then, "that He might send them out to preach." First and foremost, Jesus calls a disciple just to be with Him. And these 12 men rearrange their whole lives to be with Jesus.
That's still the calling of a disciple of Jesus Christ. It's the calling of someone like you who has decided to follow Jesus. The single most important thing Jesus is asking you to do is not to work hard for Him, not to believe all the right things about Him, not to do all the right things for Him. He's first and foremost asking you to be with Him - a lot!
Now for Sherry, it would take some major rearranging of her life to be able to be with our son. For the disciples to be able to be with Jesus regularly, you're talking a major rearranging of their lives. And you know what? It will probably mean some rearranging for you. But spending time with Jesus is the central core of the Christian life. Without that, it's just a religion. With it, it's a growing love relationship.
You are really a disciple of Jesus Christ when you make your daily time with Jesus the non-negotiable of your personal schedule. The truth is that your "with Him" time tends to get crowded out of your daily activities, doesn't it? Satan knows that's the heartbeat; it's the power source of your relationship with Christ. So guess what? Your enemy throws out all kinds of distractions and obstacles and reasons not to have that Jesus time. He'll use everything from laziness to busyness to stress to people you love to keep you from doing what matters most to Jesus - being with Him.
Making your Jesus time a non-negotiable will probably mean rearranging some things. In a very busy life, something's got to go if there's going to be room for Jesus. But the day you make the choice to do that is the day you are stepping up to really truly being a disciple of Jesus.
People in love will rearrange what they have to rearrange to be able to be together. I guess if you love Jesus, you'll do whatever you have to do to be with Him.
