Max Lucado Daily: Divine Wisdom
When I was ten, my mother enrolled me in piano lessons. Spending afternoons tethered to a piano bench was a torture just one level away from swallowing broken glass. Some of the music I enjoyed. I hammered the staccatos. But I could never understand the rest. The zigzagged command to do nothing. Nothing! What sense does that make? Why sit and pause when you can pound? "Because," my teacher patiently explained, "music is always sweeter after a rest."
Divine wisdom. In fact, it reminds me of the convictions of another Teacher. Before He went to the masses, Christ went to the mountain. Before the disciples encountered the crowds, they encountered the Christ. And before they faced the people, they were reminded of the sacred! Is it time for you to rest?
From The Applause of Heaven
John 10:22-42
Jesus Claims to Be the Son of God
22 It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. 23 He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. 26 But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else.[a] No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”
31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 32 Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?”
33 They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.”
34 Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures[b] that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!’[c] 35 And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered. So if those people who received God’s message were called ‘gods,’ 36 why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God’? After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world. 37 Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. 38 But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”
39 Once again they tried to arrest him, but he got away and left them. 40 He went beyond the Jordan River near the place where John was first baptizing and stayed there awhile. 41 And many followed him. “John didn’t perform miraculous signs,” they remarked to one another, “but everything he said about this man has come true.” 42 And many who were there believed in Jesus.
Footnotes:
10:29 Other manuscripts read for what my Father has given me is more powerful than anything; still others read for regarding that which my Father has given me, he is greater than all.
10:34a Greek your own law.
10:34b Ps 82:6.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Read: Isaiah 53:4-12
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.[b]
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.[c]
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
9 He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave.
10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
Footnotes:
53:4 Or Yet it was our sicknesses he carried; / it was our diseases.
53:8a Greek version reads He was humiliated and received no justice. Compare Acts 8:33.
53:8b Or As for his contemporaries, / who cared that his life was cut short in midstream? Greek version reads Who can speak of his descendants? / For his life was taken from the earth. Compare Acts 8:33.
INSIGHT:
Isaiah 53 is the last of four prophecies of Isaiah (42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13–53:12) known as the “Servant Songs” because they speak of the “Servant” (42:1; 49:3; 50:10; 52:13). These Songs prophetically identify Jesus the Messiah as the Servant. Sim Kay Tee
A Portrait of Jesus
By David McCasland
We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. —Isaiah 53:6
In Portraits of Famous American Women, Robert Henkes writes, “A portrait is not a photograph, nor is it a mirror image.” A portrait goes beyond the outer appearance to probe the emotional depth of the human soul. In a portrait, a true artist tries “to capture what the person is really about.”
Over the centuries, many portraits have been painted of Jesus. Perhaps you’ve seen them in a church or museum of art or even have one in your home. Not one of these is a true portrait, of course, because we have no photograph or mirror image of our Lord’s physical appearance. We do, however, have a magnificent word portrait of Him in Isaiah 53. This God-inspired description captures in vivid detail what He is all about: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering . . . . But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; . . . and by his wounds we are healed” (vv. 4-5 niv).
This passage enables us to see love and sorrow, anguish and pain on Jesus’ face. But His lips do not accuse or condemn. He has no sins of His own to grieve; only ours to bear. And deep inside, He knows that “He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied” (v. 11).
What a portrait of our Savior!
What amazing love You have for us, Jesus! As I think of how awesome You are, I bow in silence before You.
Love was when God became a man.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
The Theology of Resting in God
August 12, 2015
Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? —Matthew 8:26
When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits’ end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.
“…O you of little faith!” What a stinging pain must have shot through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, “We missed the mark again!” And what a sharp pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, in spite of what we were facing.
There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives, and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.
We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own. Biblical Ethics, 99 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
The Pain Pays Off - #7458
My son had more bruises on his body than I've ever seen. He was playing freshman football, and he paid a price. I mean, the coaches ran him until he almost dropped. They ran the guys through all kinds of exercises-hitting, tackling, and sweating. And some guys actually quit because it was just too much. But finally, the games began, and they were winning. And after one of the games they had a great celebration coming back on the bus. They weren't thinking very much about their bruises, because they had just had a 20-0 shut out and they were keeping their winning streak in tact. And that afternoon, my son weighed the pain he's experienced against that pleasure. Now, what he concluded may help you weigh yours.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about 'The Pain Pays Off.'
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is about the pain paying off, and it's in Romans 8:17-18. We know that this was written by Paul, and this is a man who had a lot of bruises. Not from football, but the bruises he suffered in his life from taking his stand for Christ. And here's what he says, 'Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.' So Paul says, 'When you compare the pain with the pleasure; when you compare the sacrifices with the rewards, there's no comparison.'
As my son was reflecting on all the bruises and all the times he had been knocked around, and the sweating and the hurting in practice, and then how it felt to win, he said to me, 'Dad, the feeling of victory is worth all those hours of practice. Now, you don't think so,' he told me, 'when you're slugging it out in practice, but it's worth it.' Paul said, 'We are going to have an ultimate victory.' My son said, 'Dad, the only problem is the victory feeling doesn't last too long. You've got to go back to the painful stuff.'
What Paul was talking about here is reward that does last. My son was saying that 15 hours of practice and sweat...it's worth it for a few hours of joy. Paul said any hurt we have here is going to be like minutes compared to the forever celebration of victory; even the victory in this life-a sense of having overcome, of having gone through this with Jesus, of knowing Him better than I've ever known Him before. Having tasted His power as I never would have tasted but for the hard times.
Maybe you're in practice right now and you don't feel very victorious. You're pressured. You're trying to do what's right, and it doesn't seem to be working. Maybe God has trusted you with the assignment to show His joy in the midst of physical suffering, because that's when everybody's watching you to see if what you've got is real. Maybe you're paying a price for your stand for Christ, and it's tempting to compromise, to back off, or to give in to despair, or just to give up.
God will always remember your faithfulness, and He will reward it a hundred times over. If you make your decisions based on what's comfortable, like those guys who quit football practice, you will never know the thrill of victory. I love the hymn that says, 'It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase. It will be worth it all when we see Him.'
This enabled Paul to have a different perspective on his hurts. He said in this same chapter, 'We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.' The victory will be so glorious that I am willing to take my hits in practice. Don't quit now! The practice is just a little while; the party is forever.