Max Lucado Daily: Correction and Direction
Hurting people hang with hurting people. We love those who commiserate and avoid those who correct us. Yet correction and direction are what we need. I discovered the importance of healthy counsel in a half-Ironman triathlon. After the 1.2 mile swim and the 56-mile bike ride, I didn’t have much energy left for the 13.1 mile run. Neither did the fellow jogging next to me. I asked him how he was doing and soon regretted it! He said, “This stinks. It’s the dumbest decision I’ve ever made.” He had more complaints than a taxpayer at the IRS. My response to him? “Good-bye.” I knew if I listened too long, I’d start agreeing with him.
Proverbs reminds us to “take good counsel and watch your plans succeed.” (Proverbs 15:22) Be quick to pray, seek healthy counsel, and don’t give up!
From Facing Your Giants
Psalm 15
A psalm of David.
1 Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
2 Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
3 Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
4 Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
5 Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Read: Joshua 14:6-12
Caleb Requests His Land
6 A delegation from the tribe of Judah, led by Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb said to Joshua, “Remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh-barnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land of Canaan. I returned and gave an honest report, 8 but my brothers who went with me frightened the people from entering the Promised Land. For my part, I wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God. 9 So that day Moses solemnly promised me, ‘The land of Canaan on which you were just walking will be your grant of land and that of your descendants forever, because you wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.’
10 “Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. 11 I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. 12 So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said.”
INSIGHT:
Caleb was one of the 12 spies Moses sent to explore Canaan. Based on the report of ten of the spies, the Israelites concluded that they could not conquer the land (Num. 13–14). Caleb challenged their lack of faith (13:30; 14:6-9; Deut. 1:29-30). God took note of his faithfulness (Deut. 1:34-36), and he is consistently described as one who wholly followed the Lord (Num. 14:24; 32:12; Deut. 1:36, Josh. 14:8-9,14).
Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength. —Joshua 14:11
Dutch artist Yoni Lefevre created a project called “Grey Power” to show the vitality of the aging generation in the Netherlands. She asked local schoolchildren to sketch their grandparents. Lefevre wanted to show an “honest and pure view” of older people, and she believed children could help supply this. The youngsters’ drawings reflected a fresh and lively perspective of their elders—grandmas and grandpas were shown playing tennis, gardening, painting, and more!
Caleb, of ancient Israel, was vital into his senior years. As a young man, he infiltrated the Promised Land before the Israelites conquered it. Caleb believed God would help his nation defeat the Canaanites, but the other spies disagreed (Josh. 14:8). Because of Caleb’s faith, God miraculously sustained his life for 45 years so he might survive the wilderness wanderings and enter the Promised Land. When it was finally time to enter Canaan, 85-year-old Caleb said, “Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength” (v. 11). With God’s help, Caleb successfully claimed his share of the land (Num. 14:24).
God does not forget about us as we grow older. Although our bodies age and our health may fail, God’s Holy Spirit renews us inwardly each day (2 Cor. 4:16). He makes it possible for our lives to have significance at every stage and every age.
Heavenly Father, I know that my physical strength and health can fail. But I pray that You will continually renew me spiritually so I can serve You faithfully as long as I live.
With God’s strength behind you and His arms beneath you, you can face whatever lies ahead of you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
July 30, 2015
The Teaching of Disillusionment
Jesus did not commit Himself to them…, for He knew what was in man. —John 2:24-25
Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions. However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others. But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism. Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly.
Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens— if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being something which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God, and in what God’s grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Why It Gets Worse When You're Getting Better - #7449
Since we're not all military types, it's probably good to explain what a beachhead is before we talk about one. A beachhead is not where the beach begins. And it's not a guy who just thinks about getting to the beach all the time. In wartime, a beachhead is pretty serious business. It's a small piece of ground that you try to take as your first step in taking all the ground that your enemy holds.
For example, during WWII, two of the world's greatest generals went against each other when the Allies set out to take North Africa back from the Germans. General Dwight Eisenhower, the commander of the Allied forces, planned to land and take three important beachheads. German general Rommel, the famous "Desert Fox", basically said, "We must stop Eisenhower within 48 hours of his landing or we won't stop him." They didn't stop him. And five months after Eisenhower successfully captured that first beachhead, Rommel had to flee and surrender everything, including 250,000 soldiers. But he lost it at that first beachhead.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why It Gets Worse When You're Getting Better."
Satan, the commander of hell's forces, is determined to stop you from ever becoming what Jesus died for you to be. And like any smart general, he knows he has to stop you at that first beachhead, before you gain any more ground. His strategy is revealed in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Mark 4:15. "Some people are like seed along the path," Jesus said, "where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them."
God's Word has landed in your heart. You're starting to gain some ground spiritually and your enemy is alarmed. He comes immediately to try to take away the ground you just gained through God's Word.
It's important to understand that. It helps explain why things have suddenly gotten so tough for you, why things are going wrong, maybe why you don't have the spiritual enthusiasm you did before. Your logical reaction, "I've been really trying to do what God wants. What's wrong here?" The answer is, "'Nothing's wrong! It's because something's right!"
You have started to take a beachhead for God and the enemy is worried. So suddenly he's interested in you. He didn't have to bother you when you weren't a threat. But now he's got to get in there and make it hard. He's got to stop your forward progress fast or there's no telling how much ground he's going to lose!
Satan gets busy whenever God has made a major landing in your life. He's got to stop the beachhead. Maybe you've recently made a new surrender of your life to Jesus or you've said yes to His call on your life. You've stepped up to leadership. Could it be that you've begun a new work for the Lord? Made a new commitment to be the marriage partner or the parent you should be, to give more to the Lord's work, to live by new priorities? Guess what? Alarm bells are going off in hell.
But don't get discouraged. Don't go back to the old ways. This is just your old enemy trying to stop this progress while it's new and fragile. If you keep going this way, your enemy's going to lose big time and he knows it. So step up and launch a Biblical counterattack. In the words of James 4:7, "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you."
Charles Spurgeon said, "The greatest sign of God's will and God's power is the Devil's growl." If you're hearing the "growl" you're probably on the right track. The battle for the beachhead... it might be raging around you or even in you right now. Hold your ground, soldier.
You're not losing or the enemy wouldn't bother with you. You're on your way to some of the greatest victories of your life!