Max Lucado Daily: Your Nevertheless
Two types of thoughts continually vie for your attention. One says, God will help you. The other lies, God has left you. Here is the great news: you select the voice you hear! Why give ear to pea-brains when you can, with the same ear, listen to the voice of God?
I had a friend who battled the stronghold of alcohol. He tried a fresh tactic. He gave me and a few others permission to slug him if we ever saw him drinking. He was determined to hear the right voices. He succeeded; and I never slugged him.
Try something drastic. Turn a deaf ear to the old voices. Open a wide eye to the new choices. God loves to give them. He gave one to Peter. Remember "Speak-now-and-think-later Pete?" God turned impetuous Peter into the apostle Peter. And you? He'll do something similar. He will help you.
From Facing Your Giants
Psalm 19
For the choir director: A psalm of David.
1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
2 Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
3 They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.[a]
4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world.
God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
5 It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding.
It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.
6 The sun rises at one end of the heavens
and follows its course to the other end.
Nothing can hide from its heat.
7 The instructions of the Lord are perfect,
reviving the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The commandments of the Lord are right,
bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are clear,
giving insight for living.
9 Reverence for the Lord is pure,
lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true;
each one is fair.
10 They are more desirable than gold,
even the finest gold.
They are sweeter than honey,
even honey dripping from the comb.
11 They are a warning to your servant,
a great reward for those who obey them.
12 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.
14 May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Footnotes:
19:3 Or There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 03, 2015
Read: Romans 6:16-23
Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Insight:
Having proven that all people are sinners and having shown how sinners are justified through faith in Jesus (Rom. 1–4), Paul now describes the new life we can have because of what Jesus did (chs. 5–8). We can live differently, we can choose not to sin, and we can live holy lives (6:1-14). In today’s passage, Paul warns that we become the slave of whatever we choose to obey (vv. 16-20). Rather than give ourselves to sin, we are to give ourselves to God (vv. 22-23). When we do sin, we bear the consequences of our sins and experience a lack of fellowship with God (Gal. 6:7-8). Sim Kay Tee
On the Edge
By David H. Roper
Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. John 8:34
There’s an underground lava tube south of Kuna, Idaho, that has gained a certain amount of local notoriety. The only entrance, as far as I know, is a yawning shaft that plunges straight down into darkness.
Some years ago I stood at the edge of that shaft and looked down. I was drawn to venture closer and almost lost my balance. I felt a moment of heart-pounding terror and stepped away from the opening.
Sin is like that: Curiosity can draw us toward the darkness. How often have men and women gotten too close to the edge, lost their balance, and fallen into the darkness? They’ve destroyed their families, reputations, and careers through adulterous affairs that began with a “mere” flirtation but then progressed to thoughts and actions. Looking back they almost always say, “I never thought it would come to this.”
We think we can flirt with temptation, get very close to the edge, and walk away, but that’s a fool’s dream. We know an action is wrong and yet we toy with it. Then, inescapably, we are drawn into deeper and darker perversions. Jesus put it simply: “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34).
And so, seeing our own need for God’s help, we pray as David did in Psalm 19:13, “Keep back Your servant also from [deliberate] sins; let them not have dominion over me.”
Heavenly Father, whether we are being tempted now, or have fallen, we thank You that You are always there, and You love us with relentless love. We have nowhere to turn but to You.
A big fall begins with a little stumble.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 3, 2015
The Compelling Purpose of God
He…said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem…" —Luke 18:31
Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Seeking to do “the will of the Father” was the one dominating concern throughout our Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. “…He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem…” (Luke 9:51).
The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose of God. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” (John 15:16).
We are not taken into a conscious agreement with God’s purpose— we are taken into God’s purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no idea what God’s goal may be; as we continue, His purpose becomes even more and more vague. God’s aim appears to have missed the mark, because we are too nearsighted to see the target at which He is aiming. At the beginning of the Christian life, we have our own ideas as to what God’s purpose is. We say, “God means for me to go over there,” and, “God has called me to do this special work.” We do what we think is right, and yet the compelling purpose of God remains upon us. The work we do is of no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is simply the scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan. “He took the twelve aside…” (Luke 18:31). God takes us aside all the time. We have not yet understood all there is to know of the compelling purpose of God.
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 03, 2015
Your Light in a Dark Night - #7451
My wife is like a human camera. She's able to record in her mind life experiences in living color and in full detail. I wish I could do it! And growing up on a little farm in the hills gave her a childhood full of memorable memories.
For example, on wintry nights her parents would go out to the barn to milk the cows and they had a lantern in their hand because they didn't have any electricity. And their house was in a hollow in the woods where the darkness was really dark. So my wife kept watching the lantern. She remembers one time when she heard people talking about a panther in the area. That's what a little girl wants to hear, right? And the adult said that you would know the panther was around when you heard its sound, and it would be like the scream of a woman.
One particular night she stood there with one hand on the screen door of the house and the other hand on her tiny little sister waiting for her parents to come back from the barn, watching that lantern. That's when she heard it; the screams of the panther. Well, you can only imagine the rush of thoughts in a little girl's mind; the fears racing through her little mind. But my wife said, "I knew my parents were okay as long as that light was steady. I just kept watching that lantern for a steady light."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Light in a Dark Night."
Now, at one time or another in our life we have all been that little girl in the door of that farmhouse. It's dark; it's scary and something you fear seems close. It may be that kind of time in your life right now and you need a steady light to give you something you can count on in this darkness.
Well, there's our word for today from the Word of God, John 8:12. Listen to what Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life." So, Jesus said, "I am the light." And Jesus is a sure guarantee, "If I am your light, you will never walk in darkness." He said He's the steady light we're looking for.
Now, you've lived long enough to probably have other lights let you down. Right? The people who were going to be there for you? The light went out. A job you could count on is suddenly gone. A religion that maybe it met your needs but at the time when you needed answers the most, it just couldn't deliver. And now maybe in a dark place, Jesus - the light - stands before you and He's beckoning, He's extending His invitation, "Follow Me." "Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" He said.
See, those who commit their lives to Jesus Christ live under this wonderful promise, "I will never leave you or forsake you." When no one else can do it, Jesus is there. When the situation is bigger than you are, the Son of God is bigger than the situation is. When earth has no answers, Jesus will lead you through the confusion and the hurt. But you can't see it right now as long as there's a wall between you and Him. That wall separates you and it's what the Bible calls sin. You don't have any power to remove it.
But in the words of the Bible, "While we were still sinners..." In other words, while the wall was still there, "Christ died for us." He died so He could tear down your sin-wall by paying your death penalty for running your own life. And now He waits for you to say, "Jesus, I'm putting my total trust in You to rescue me from my sin, from the penalty of my sin."
Have you ever reached out to Him in that way? Have you ever had a time when you grabbed Jesus like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard and say, "Jesus, you're my only hope"? If you've never done that, you want to be sure you belong to Him. From this moment on you're not going to walk alone through the dark ever again.
You can go to our website ANewStory.com and there you'll find all the information you need to be sure you belong to Him. And if you want to talk with someone about what it means to follow Jesus, then text us at 442-244-WORD.
That dark and scary night on that little farm, that little girl found security because she could see a steady light out there. And there's one waiting for you. That security is Jesus Christ, our ever-living Savior. Follow His light and you will always be safe.