Max Lucado Daily: Choose Obedience
Remember where you are! As a child of God, you are in the Promised Land. Not geographically but spiritually. This is the land of grace and hope…freedom and truth…love and life! The devil has no jurisdiction over you. He acts as if he does. He walks with a swagger and brings temptation, but as you resist him and turn to God, James 4:7 tells us, he must flee.
Voices await you today. In your cul-de-sac, at school, and on the Internet. They are waiting for you. You cannot eliminate their presence, but you can prepare for their invitation. You are indwelled by the Spirit of the living God. You are His! Decide now what you will say then. Choose obedience! And as you do you can expect blessings. The blessings of a clear conscience, a good night's sleep, and the blessing of God's favor.
From Glory Days
Proverbs 27
Don’t brag about tomorrow,
since you don’t know what the day will bring.
2 Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth—
a stranger, not your own lips.
3 A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,
but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier.
4 Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood,
but jealousy is even more dangerous.
5 An open rebuke
is better than hidden love!
6 Wounds from a sincere friend
are better than many kisses from an enemy.
7 A person who is full refuses honey,
but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.
8 A person who strays from home
is like a bird that strays from its nest.
9 The heartfelt counsel of a friend
is as sweet as perfume and incense.
10 Never abandon a friend—
either yours or your father’s.
When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance.
It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away.
11 Be wise, my child,[a] and make my heart glad.
Then I will be able to answer my critics.
12 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
13 Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.
Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.[b]
14 A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning
will be taken as a curse!
15 A quarrelsome wife is as annoying
as constant dripping on a rainy day.
16 Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind
or trying to hold something with greased hands.
17 As iron sharpens iron,
so a friend sharpens a friend.
18 As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit,
so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded.
19 As a face is reflected in water,
so the heart reflects the real person.
20 Just as Death and Destruction[c] are never satisfied,
so human desire is never satisfied.
21 Fire tests the purity of silver and gold,
but a person is tested by being praised.[d]
22 You cannot separate fools from their foolishness,
even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.
23 Know the state of your flocks,
and put your heart into caring for your herds,
24 for riches don’t last forever,
and the crown might not be passed to the next generation.
25 After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears
and the mountain grasses are gathered in,
26 your sheep will provide wool for clothing,
and your goats will provide the price of a field.
27 And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself,
your family, and your servant girls.
Footnotes:
27:11 Hebrew my son.
27:13 As in Greek and Latin versions (see also 20:16); Hebrew reads for a promiscuous woman.
27:20 Hebrew Sheol and Abaddon.
27:21 Or by flattery.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Read: Psalm 86:1-13
A prayer of David.
1 Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;
answer me, for I need your help.
2 Protect me, for I am devoted to you.
Save me, for I serve you and trust you.
You are my God.
3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
for I am calling on you constantly.
4 Give me happiness, O Lord,
for I give myself to you.
5 O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.
6 Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord;
hear my urgent cry.
7 I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble,
and you will answer me.
8 No pagan god is like you, O Lord.
None can do what you do!
9 All the nations you made
will come and bow before you, Lord;
they will praise your holy name.
10 For you are great and perform wonderful deeds.
You alone are God.
11 Teach me your ways, O Lord,
that I may live according to your truth!
Grant me purity of heart,
so that I may honor you.
12 With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
I will give glory to your name forever,
13 for your love for me is very great.
You have rescued me from the depths of death.[a]
Footnotes:
86:13 Hebrew of Sheol.
INSIGHT:
The psalms are often read as windows to the soul—songs that reflect the reality of our emotions and struggles. They encourage us to understand that God can handle our honesty as we express ourselves to Him. Yes, God is big enough to absorb our anger and listen to our complaints, but we must not overlook the context in which the writers of the psalms expressed their feelings. In today’s passage, over and over David recognizes his place in relationship to God. He acknowledges that he is “poor and needy” (v. 1), he is faithful to God and trusts in Him (v. 2), and he is God’s “servant” (v. 4). It is important that we understand who we are in relationship to God when we bring our hurts and struggles to Him. J.R. Hudberg
Angry Prayers
By Shelly Beach |
Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.
Proverbs 29:11
The neighbors probably didn’t know what to think as they looked out their windows at me one wintry day. I was standing in the driveway with a garden shovel clutched in my hands, whacking wildly and angrily at a clump of ice that had formed beneath a corner gutter. With each smack, I was uttering prayers that were variations on one theme: “I can’t do this.” “You can’t expect me to do this.” “I don’t have the strength to do this.” As a caregiver, with a long list of responsibilities to handle, I now had this ice to deal with, and I had had enough!
My anger was wrapped around a bundle of lies: “I deserve better than this.” “God isn’t enough after all.” “Nobody cares anyway.” But when we choose to cling to our anger, we become mired in the trap of bitterness, never moving forward. And the only cure for anger is truth.
The truth is that God does not give us what we deserve; He gives us mercy instead. “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you” (Ps. 86:5). The truth is that God is more than enough, despite what we see. The truth is that His strength is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9). Yet before we can find such reassurance, we may need to step back, lay down the shovel of our own efforts, and take Jesus’ hand that’s extended to us in mercy and grace.
God is big enough to listen to our anger and loving enough to show us, in His time, the path forward.
Loving God, forgive me for my outbursts of anger. Today I choose to lay down my sinful anger and accept Your mercy and grace. Thank You for forgiveness and for truth that leads to wisdom.
Shelly Beach is the author of several books, including Precious Lord, Take My Hand: Meditations for Caregivers.
Grace: Getting what we don’t deserve.
Mercy: Not getting what we do deserve.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Partakers of His Suffering
…but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings… —1 Peter 4:13
If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by what comes your way. You say, “Oh, I can’t deal with that person.” Why can’t you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way.
The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered “according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God’s purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God’s orders through a shortcut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering— the way of the “long road home.”
Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through— we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize— “God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Choosing Your Uniform - #7519
Okay, I admit I'm a history guy. So I stop at President's houses and all these places. My poor kids have gone on more tours of places: Revolutionary War, Civil War. Yep, of course we're going to stop and see that. We'd just come back from a vacation that included a tour of a Civil War battlefield and we had our appropriate souvenirs. That night there was actually a revealing addition to my wife's and my room! On her side there was a grey hat, on my side there was a blue hat. Guess who grew up in the south; guess who grew up in the north. But I'll tell you what. Back in those days, as in many battles throughout history, the color of your uniform makes you the other guy's target.
There's a story about one soldier during the Civil War who tried his own unique method of staying safe. He decided that he would wear a blue coat and grey pants. One small problem: he got shot at on both ends.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Choosing Your Uniform!"
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 19:38 - a man who had to make that choice. We're going to look at an amazing day in the life of this man who in a sense literally tried to wear two opposing uniforms.
Joseph of Arimathea - the scene is right after the death of Jesus, and it says, "Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilot for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate's permission he came and took the body away." We know now, and we'll know for all history that Joseph said, "I want Jesus buried in my tomb." Now, this is a man who wore the uniform of Jesus in his heart but who operated in surroundings and with people where Jesus wasn't respected. It could cost him a lot for people in his circle to know of his allegiance to Jesus! So on the outside he wore the uniform of his environment, blending in, but on the inside, he had his Jesus uniform. This sound a little familiar?
Is there a place where you cover up your Jesus uniform because it might cost you to show it, like at your job, or in school, with a particular group of people, or associates, or with your family, on Facebook? Well, the problem is when you don't choose your uniform, you just get pressure from both sides. You haven't declared the Jesus difference in your life to the unbelievers around you so they continue to expect you to be like them. Meanwhile, you have a Christian world that knows your Jesus side and expects you to live like you belong to Him! When you don't choose you've got pressure from both sides.
Well, be encouraged with what happened to Joseph. Suddenly he blew his cover, he went public, he acted as if he didn't care who knew he belonged to Jesus. What happened here? The cross happened. Joseph must have seen what Jesus suffered for him that day and he just couldn't deny his Savior anymore. Like Joseph, maybe it's time for you to say, "Jesus, if you could hang on a cross and die publicly for me, I can live publicly for you."
It was after an event where we had challenged Christian young people to be a Jesus ambassador to their friends. A young 12-year-old girl surprised her mom; I guess it was the next day. She'd had Jesus shirts but she only wore them to Christian places, but the morning after this rally she appeared ready for school wearing one of her Jesus shirts and her Mom was kind of taken aback. She said, "You're wearing that to school?" And her daughter replied, "Mom, today I'm going to start making a difference."
Well, it's not necessarily about wearing a Christian shirt or handing out Christian literature. But it is about making a firm decision to choose your uniform once and for all. To belong to Jesus and not care who knows it. To bring up your relationship with Him whenever there's an opportunity; to seek opportunities to tell people about that relationship.
Here's God's charge to you in Ephesians 6:13. "Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand" You've tried maybe serving two masters. Haven't you done that long enough? You've postponed choosing your uniform long enough. Jesus stood for you, and He didn't care what it cost. Can't you do that for Him?
