Max Lucado Daily:
Obedience is the Key
Do you want a Promised Land life? Do you desire the fullness of Glory Days? Then obey God’s commands! What’s that? You expected something more mystical, exotic, or intriguing? You thought that the Promised Land level life was birthed from ecstatic utterances or angelic visions, mountaintop moments, or midnight messages from heaven? Sorry to disappoint you.
Obedience, wrote C.S. Lewis, is the key to all doors. Don’t think for a second you can heed the wrong voice, make the wrong choice, and escape the consequences. At the same time, obedience leads to a waterfall of goodness not just for you but for your children, your children’s children, and great-grandchildren. It is God’s promise in Exodus 20:6 to “show love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” As we obey God’s commands, we open the door for God’s favor!
From Glory Days
Proverbs 26
Honor is no more associated with fools
than snow with summer or rain with harvest.
2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow,
an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.
3 Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle,
and a fool with a rod to his back!
4 Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or you will become as foolish as they are.
5 Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or they will become wise in their own estimation.
6 Trusting a fool to convey a message
is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison!
7 A proverb in the mouth of a fool
is as useless as a paralyzed leg.
8 Honoring a fool
is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot.
9 A proverb in the mouth of a fool
is like a thorny branch brandished by a drunk.
10 An employer who hires a fool or a bystander
is like an archer who shoots at random.
11 As a dog returns to its vomit,
so a fool repeats his foolishness.
12 There is more hope for fools
than for people who think they are wise.
13 The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion on the road!
Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!”
14 As a door swings back and forth on its hinges,
so the lazy person turns over in bed.
15 Lazy people take food in their hand
but don’t even lift it to their mouth.
16 Lazy people consider themselves smarter
than seven wise counselors.
17 Interfering in someone else’s argument
is as foolish as yanking a dog’s ears.
18 Just as damaging
as a madman shooting a deadly weapon
19 is someone who lies to a friend
and then says, “I was only joking.”
20 Fire goes out without wood,
and quarrels disappear when gossip stops.
21 A quarrelsome person starts fights
as easily as hot embers light charcoal or fire lights wood.
22 Rumors are dainty morsels
that sink deep into one’s heart.
23 Smooth[b] words may hide a wicked heart,
just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot.
24 People may cover their hatred with pleasant words,
but they’re deceiving you.
25 They pretend to be kind, but don’t believe them.
Their hearts are full of many evils.[c]
26 While their hatred may be concealed by trickery,
their wrongdoing will be exposed in public.
27 If you set a trap for others,
you will get caught in it yourself.
If you roll a boulder down on others,
it will crush you instead.
28 A lying tongue hates its victims,
and flattering words cause ruin.
Footnotes:
26:25 Hebrew seven evils.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
Read: Ephesians 6:5-9
Slaves and Masters
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6 Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
9 Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.
INSIGHT:
Historians say that slaves composed about one-third of the population of Ephesus. In today’s reading Paul teaches believing slaves and masters how to live in a Christlike way within the established structures of society. These instructions called for reciprocal attitudes and applied to both slaves and masters (v. 9). Because of their new relationship with Christ, believers were accountable to Him as their Master, and He would judge fairly regardless of one’s social or economic status. Both slaves and masters were to treat each other with respect, sincerity, justice, and fairness (vv. 5-9). Sim Kay Tee
The Daily Grind
By David Roper
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Colossians 3:23
The high school I attended required 4 years of Latin instruction. I appreciate the value of that discipline now, but back then it was a grind. Our teacher believed in drill and repetition. “Repetitio est mater studiorum,” she intoned over us several times a day, which simply means, “Repetition is the mother of learning.” “Repetitio est absurdum,” we muttered under our breath. “Repetition is absurd.”
I realize now that most of life is simply that: repetition—a round of dull, uninspiring, lackluster things we must do again and again. “Repetition is both as ordinary and necessary as bread,” said Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. But he went on to say, “It is the bread that satisfies with benediction.”
Even the smallest tasks are done for God.
It’s a matter of taking up each duty, no matter how mundane, humble, or trivial, and asking God to bless it and put it to His intended purposes. In that way we take the drudgeries of life and turn them into holy work, filled with unseen, eternal consequence.
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, “To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a [pitchfork] in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory, too. God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should.”
If whatever we do is done for Christ, we’ll be amazed at the joy and meaning we’ll find in even the most ordinary tasks.
Remind us today, Lord, that You are in the dull and ordinary tasks of life in a most extraordinary way. Let us not forget that we do even the smallest tasks for You.
A willing spirit changes the drudgery of duty into a labor of love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
A Bondservant of Jesus
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me… —Galatians 2:20
These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “…for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.
Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ….”
The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.
One student a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
When Everything's Looking Dark - #7517
When I had lunch with my friends George and Linda, they told me that the view had really improved at their house. They told me that everything in their backyard had looked so dirty and so dingy for a long time - until the other day. They did something that totally changed the view. They cleaned the big window that looks out on the yard. See, when you're looking through a dirty window, everything looks dirty.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Everything's Looking Dark."
Now the Apostle Paul was writing from a very depressing location when he wrote our word for today from the Word of God. He was actually in prison for doing something right. He was a victim of injustice. He was surrounded by gloom, he was isolated from the people who cared about him and honestly he was very uncertain about the future. So what was the view for him - Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" How can he be so positive? How can he be so joyful?
Verse 6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God." Paul said when you bring your situation to God with thanksgiving, you're focusing on the good things that God has done. Then verse 7 says, "And the peace of God..." In other words, as a result of that, "The peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And then verse 8, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."
In other words Paul is saying train your brain not to dwell on the negatives but on the noble stuff, the true stuff, the right, the pure, the lovely, the things that are worthy of praise. He's telling us that life looks much brighter when you're looking out a clean window. But unfortunately, too often life looks dark and depressing, and discouraging, overwhelming to us.
That happened to George and Linda. That's how we ended up talking about their backyard window. They said there has been tension between them and some of their family members. They left their church because of some of the disillusioning things there; but now they're actively working on removing those sources of tension between them and between their family members and they're returning to their church, but this time with a new attitude. I said, "Hey, you cleaned your window". And they said, "What?" I said, "When you are looking through a dirty window everything looks dirty." Then they smiled at each other and said, "We just did that last week. We cleaned our back window and what a difference it's made."
They also cleaned the dirty window on their heart and they started to focus on positives, on solutions, on healing, and everything suddenly looked different. Maybe it's time for you to do some window cleaning. Maybe you've allowed some bitterness or resentment to creep into your heart. Maybe what you have been through has caused you to slip into thinking about yourself most of the time and into that awful swamp called self-pity. Or you focused a lot of your thinking on a person or some people who have wronged you or hurt you.
The fact is the view has become stressful, it's become discouraging, un-motivating, and it really isn't the stuff in the yard that's causing it. It's the attitude through which you are viewing things. It's your dirty window. Why don't you start back by what the Bible describes as the Rejoice Mode? It starts when you bring your situation to Jesus, and your attitude. It's your attitude that's dragging you down more than your situation. I guess it's the "rejoice choice" isn't it?
Each new day begin by listing to your Heavenly Father things for which you are thankful. There will always be plenty of them if you look for your God-sightings. And then start loading up your heart with music and scripture and conversation and people that will fill your tank with positive fuel. You may not be able to change what's in the yard, but you can change how you're looking at it. Haven't you been looking out the dirty window long enough?