Max Lucado Daily: Evidence of God's Commitment
Maybe you question your place in God's family. You wrestle with doubt-laced questions. What if God changes His mind? Reverses His acceptance? Lord knows, he has reason to do so. Parents give birth to children and abandon them. How do we know God won't do the same? God answered this question at the cross. When Jesus died, the heavenly vote was forever cast in your favor and mind. Promised Land people trust God's hold on them more than their hold on God. They point to Calvary as evidence of God's commitment to them.
In this week's Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge I invite you to join me in memorizing John 1:12."Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
Claim your inheritance! Join me at GloryDaysToday.com-let's memorize God's Word together!
Living Out of Your Inheritance
Promised Land people say I'm a victor in spite of my surroundings. Wilderness people say These are difficult days and I'll never get through them. But God's people say, These days are Glory Days…and God will get me through!
John 1:12 says, "Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Imagine what would happen if a generation of Christians lived out of their inheritance. The lonely would find comfort in God, not in the arms of strangers. Struggling couples would spend more time in prayer and less time in anger. And children would consider it a blessing to care for their aging parents.
Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ, because He gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13). Join me in claiming your inheritance in a special 4-week journey of scripture memory at GloryDaysToday.com!
Proverbs 1
The Purpose of Proverbs
1 These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.
2 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline,
to help them understand the insights of the wise.
3 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives,
to help them do what is right, just, and fair.
4 These proverbs will give insight to the simple,
knowledge and discernment to the young.
5 Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser.
Let those with understanding receive guidance
6 by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
A Father’s Exhortation: Acquire Wisdom
8 My child,[a] listen when your father corrects you.
Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.
9 What you learn from them will crown you with grace
and be a chain of honor around your neck.
10 My child, if sinners entice you,
turn your back on them!
11 They may say, “Come and join us.
Let’s hide and kill someone!
Just for fun, let’s ambush the innocent!
12 Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave[b];
let’s swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death.
13 Think of the great things we’ll get!
We’ll fill our houses with all the stuff we take.
14 Come, throw in your lot with us;
we’ll all share the loot.”
15 My child, don’t go along with them!
Stay far away from their paths.
16 They rush to commit evil deeds.
They hurry to commit murder.
17 If a bird sees a trap being set,
it knows to stay away.
18 But these people set an ambush for themselves;
they are trying to get themselves killed.
19 Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money;
it robs them of life.
Wisdom Shouts in the Streets
20 Wisdom shouts in the streets.
She cries out in the public square.
21 She calls to the crowds along the main street,
to those gathered in front of the city gate:
22 “How long, you simpletons,
will you insist on being simpleminded?
How long will you mockers relish your mocking?
How long will you fools hate knowledge?
23 Come and listen to my counsel.
I’ll share my heart with you
and make you wise.
24 “I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come.
I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.
25 You ignored my advice
and rejected the correction I offered.
26 So I will laugh when you are in trouble!
I will mock you when disaster overtakes you—
27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone,
and anguish and distress overwhelm you.
28 “When they cry for help, I will not answer.
Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me.
29 For they hated knowledge
and chose not to fear the Lord.
30 They rejected my advice
and paid no attention when I corrected them.
31 Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way,
choking on their own schemes.
32 For simpletons turn away from me—to death.
Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.
33 But all who listen to me will live in peace,
untroubled by fear of harm.”
Footnotes:
1:8 Hebrew My son; also in 1:10, 15.
1:12 Hebrew like Sheol.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Read: Jonah 2:1-10
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. 2 He said,
“I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble,
and he answered me.
I called to you from the land of the dead,[b]
and Lord, you heard me!
3 You threw me into the ocean depths,
and I sank down to the heart of the sea.
The mighty waters engulfed me;
I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.
4 Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence.
Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’
5 “I sank beneath the waves,
and the waters closed over me.
Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.
6 I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.
I was imprisoned in the earth,
whose gates lock shut forever.
But you, O Lord my God,
snatched me from the jaws of death!
7 As my life was slipping away,
I remembered the Lord.
And my earnest prayer went out to you
in your holy Temple.
8 Those who worship false gods
turn their backs on all God’s mercies.
9 But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise,
and I will fulfill all my vows.
For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”
10 Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.
Footnotes:
2:1 Verses 2:1-10 are numbered 2:2-11 in Hebrew text.
2:2 Hebrew from Sheol.
INSIGHT:
Jonah initially ministered to the northern kingdom of Israel during the powerful reign of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23-28). God reassigned him to minister to the Assyrian city of Nineveh and to warn them to repent or face God’s judgment (Jonah 1:1). After Jonah refused this new mission and instead fled in the opposite direction (v. 3), God disciplined him by causing him to be swallowed up by a big fish during a violent storm (vv. 4,17). Jonah 2 records Jonah’s prayer of repentance when he was inside the fish. Jesus used this event to foreshadow His own burial and resurrection when He said, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40; Jonah 1:17). Sim Kay Tee
The Valley of Vision
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you. Jonah 2:7
The Puritan prayer “The Valley of Vision” speaks of the distance between a sinful man and his holy God. The man says to God, “Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision . . . ; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.” Aware of his wrongs, the man still has hope. He continues, “Stars can be seen from the deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine.” Finally, the poem ends with a request: “Let me find Thy light in my darkness, . . . Thy glory in my valley.”
Jonah found God’s glory during his time in the ocean’s depths. He rebelled against God and ended up in a fish’s stomach, overcome by his sin. There, Jonah cried to God: “You cast me into the deep . . . . The waters surrounded me, even to my soul” (Jonah 2:3,5 nkjv). Despite his situation, Jonah said, “I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you” (v. 7). God heard his prayer and caused the fish to free him.
Although sin creates distance between God and us, we can look up from the lowest points in our lives and see Him—His holiness, goodness, and grace. If we turn away from our sin and confess it to God, He will forgive us. God answers prayers from the valley.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Your stars shine; let me find Your light in my darkness.
The darkness of sin only makes the light of God’s grace shine brighter.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
The Assigning of the Call
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church… —Colossians 1:24
We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).
This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.
I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
When It All Comes Down To Trust - #7493
Some years ago, I read in a news magazine about one man's very interesting response during a Papal visit to Latin America. This man owned a produce stand and it was just a couple of blocks from where the Pope was making this historic personal appearance. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Pontiff. It seemed like everybody was going, except for "Mr. Produce Stand". And this article said that a reporter asked him, "Don't you believe in the Pope?" The dealer gave a very honest answer. He said, "Oh, yes, I believe in the Pope, but I trust in rice and beans!" I guess there's a difference!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It All Comes Down To Trust."
Now that produce dealer's statement about believing wasn't double talk. There really is a difference between what you believe in and what you really have your trust in. It can make a big difference in your life choices. In fact, it can make a forever difference in where you spend eternity.
God explains how a person secures their spot in heaven. And that's important information, huh? It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 10:9-10, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified," that means made right with God, "and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Saved is the key word here, but what does it mean? It implies someone's in trouble and in need of rescuing; in need of being saved.
The Bible says we are literally dying spiritually because of a killer called sin. Sin isn't ultimately about breaking some religion's rules. It's about who runs your life. The answer? We run our lives. But we were designed by God to ride in a life that our Creator is driving. And instead, we've all decided we'll drive instead and make Him a passenger. That leads us away from God, facing an eternal death penalty. We need someone to save us, a rescuer, a Savior, and that's why God's only Son went to that awful cross for us.
Our eternity comes down to what God calls believing in your heart, notice "heart." Many people believe in their head. They agree with the facts about Jesus and they officially recognize Him as the Savior. And if you ask some if they believe in Jesus, they'll say, "Well, sure." But like the man with his produce stand, their life trust is really somewhere else.
You see that's your heart. Now, that leads to a life or death challenge from God's Word. It's in 2 Corinthians 13:5, listen to these words, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" Do what God says, test yourself. It's eternally important to ensure that you don't miss heaven by eighteen inches! That's the distance from your head to your heart. It isn't agreeing with Jesus that gets you to heaven. It's commitment to Him.
Has there ever been a time when you personally told Jesus Christ, "Jesus, I'm placing all my trust in You to rescue me from my sin; to give me a relationship with God, to guarantee me heaven." It you're not sure there's been a time, there may not have been – probably not. But that could change right now. You bow your head, imagine yourself standing at the foot of Jesus' cross and say, "Lord I believe what you're doing on that cross is for me. With all my heart I'm putting all my trust in You."
If you haven't had that Jesus day, please don't risk another day without Him. Will you take care of it right now? We'd love to help you. Our website is really to help you get started with Him. It's ANewStory.com. Please go there. Or if you want to text us, you can do that at 442-244-WORD or 442-244-9673.
See, trust in your religion is not enough, or your goodness, in anything, or anyone but Jesus. He took your hell so He could give you His heaven. And right now He's just waiting for you to trust Him with your heart.
