Max Lucado Daily: A Lot in Life
Do you know what makes you, you? Have you identified the features that distinguish you from every other human who has inhaled oxygen? You have an acreage to develop, a lot in life. Paul said in Galatians 6:4 to make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you've been given, and then sink yourself into that.
No one else is like you! What do you do well? What do people ask you to do again? What task comes easily? Your skill set is your road map. It leads you to your territory. Take note of your strengths. They are bread crumbs that will lead you out of the wilderness. God loves you too much to give you a job and not the skills. Identify yours! 1 Peter 4:11 says, "If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies."
From Glory Days
Acts 7:1-21
Stephen Addresses the Council
Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these accusations true?”
2 This was Stephen’s reply: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.[a] 3 God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’[b] 4 So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.
5 “But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants—even though he had no children yet. 6 God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land, where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. 7 ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place.’[c]
8 “God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time. So when Abraham became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day. And the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob, and when Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Israelite nation.
9 “These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. And God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace.
11 “But a famine came upon Egypt and Canaan. There was great misery, and our ancestors ran out of food. 12 Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons—our ancestors—to buy some. 13 The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers,[d] and they were introduced to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, and all his relatives to come to Egypt, seventy-five persons in all. 15 So Jacob went to Egypt. He died there, as did our ancestors. 16 Their bodies were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought for a certain price from Hamor’s sons in Shechem.
17 “As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. 18 But then a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. 19 This king exploited our people and oppressed them, forcing parents to abandon their newborn babies so they would die.
20 “At that time Moses was born—a beautiful child in God’s eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months. 21 When they had to abandon him, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son.
Footnotes:
7:2 Mesopotamia was the region now called Iraq. Haran was a city in what is now called Syria.
7:3 Gen 12:1.
7:5-7 Gen 12:7; 15:13-14; Exod 3:12.
7:13 Other manuscripts read Joseph was recognized by his brothers.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Read: Matthew 5:14-16
“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
INSIGHT:
The concept of light shining in the darkness is one of the primary themes of John’s writings, but it also has a strategic place in Matthew’s gospel. After Jesus returned from being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Matthew records the launching of Jesus’ public ministry by quoting the words of Isaiah the prophet: “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matt. 4:16; Isa. 9:2). These words provide the context for Jesus’ instruction in today’s reading about being a light to others.
Reflecting the Son
By Lawrence Darmani
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:5
Due to its location among sheer mountains and its northern latitude, Rjukan, Norway, does not see natural sunlight from October to March. To lighten up the town, the citizens installed large mirrors on the mountainside to reflect the sunrays and beam sunlight into the town square. The continuous glow is made possible because the giant mirrors rotate with the rising and setting sun.
I like to think of the Christian life as a similar scenario. Jesus said His followers are “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). John the disciple wrote that Christ the true light “shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). So too, Jesus invites us to reflect our light into the darkness around us: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). That is a call for us to show love in the face of hatred, patience in response to trouble, and peace in moments of conflict. As the apostle Paul reminds us, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light” (Eph. 5:8).
Jesus also said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Our light is a reflection of Jesus the Son. Just as without the sun the large mirrors of Rjukan would have no light to reflect, so too we can do nothing without Jesus.
Teach us, Lord, what it is to reflect Your light, especially when life’s demands can tempt us to live selfishly. Help us today to live in Your love.
Reflect the Son and shine for Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Winning into Freedom
If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. —John 8:36
If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in us, it always says, “I can’t surrender,” or “I can’t be free.” But the spiritual part of our being never says “I can’t”; it simply soaks up everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin— we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience.
God pays no attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual life. His plan runs right through our natural life. We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him by saying, “I can’t do that.” God will not discipline us; we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our “arguments…and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5)— we have to do it. Don’t say, “Oh, Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts.” Don’t suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life.
“If the Son makes you free….” Do not substitute Savior for Son in this passage. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. It is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20 when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ….” His individuality had been broken and his spirit had been united with his Lord; not just merged into Him, but made one with Him. “…you shall be free indeed”— free to the very core of your being; free from the inside to the outside. We tend to rely on our own energy, instead of being energized by the power that comes from identification with Jesus.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
When a man’s heart is right with God the mysterious utterances of the Bible are spirit and life to him. Spiritual truth is discernible only to a pure heart, not to a keen intellect. It is not a question of profundity of intellect, but of purity of heart. Bringing Sons Unto Glory, 231 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Supermen Are Breakable - #7528
Look up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's (yeah, you said it) it's Superman! Man, when I heard these words on my T.V. as a kid, I was in a T.V. trance for the next half hour. I loved to watch the exploits of the man of steel.
Over the years there have been various actors who portrayed the man of steel. A couple of them had tragic lives. George Reeves, who played Superman from 1951 to 1958 committed suicide after his career had effectively stalled. He was forever typecast as Superman. Then another actor, Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in five films, became paralyzed in 1995 from the equestrian accident where he was thrown from his horse. These actors played the part of a man who was invincible, but "behind the role" was the awful reality.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Supermen Are Breakable!"
Actually, many men have discovered that fact in their own lives. Our half of the human race has been raised to believe that we've got to be super men. The world thinks we've got it together; we feel no pain, we've got it under control. But as a man, you know there's a "real you" behind the part – a wounded warrior; maybe bleeding a lot on the inside; maybe a scared little boy underneath a mask of macho confidence; and you don't have it all under control. Superman, in reality, is breakable or broken.
Our word for today from the Word Of God introduces us to a "Superman" of another time and the dark secret that was beyond all his "Superness." Second Kings 5:1, "Now Naaman was commander of the army of the King of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier...". Okay, this guy was a "Superman" of his time, but he had a secret, a dark secret: he was dying of leprosy.
In verse 3, one of his servants said, "If only my master would see the prophet who's in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman goes for that cure, but it required humility. He didn't like the cure prescribed: he had to wash in the dirty Jordan River. He says, "Couldn't I wash in one of the streams back home and be cleansed?" It says he went off in a rage!
He was proud, and he was dying from it. Finally, he chose to be well rather than be in charge. In chapter 5, verse 14, it says, "He dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy."
I wonder if God brought us together today because He knows you're a modern day Naaman. He knows the dark spot behind the mask and He wants to cure it. But you first have to accept His diagnosis and His cure. The diagnosis is that you've got terminal spiritual cancer. It's called sin! No matter how religious, no matter how respected you may be, you've broken God's laws and you've run the life that your Creator was suppose to run and your "my way" of living has left you fatally separated from God.
The cure requires humility – the admission that you cannot save yourself – and then a trip, not to a dirty river, but to a dying Savior's cross. There you say, "Jesus, it's my sin You're dying for, isn't it? I need to be forgiven. I need a Savior. I can't be my own savior, I want to be Yours. I belong to You." The result – the same as it was for Naaman: you're restored, you're clean, you're new! Haven't you run from Jesus or put off Jesus long enough? Let this be the day you run to Him! Discover in the man Jesus, who walked 33 years as a man. He gets us guys.
When you discover in Him all the love and all the power that has eluded you, all the peace, all the fulfillment, all the worth and the ability to change what you could never change about you, you discover that when you get to Jesus and say, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
Have you ever had that day with the man God sent – Jesus, His Son – to die for you? If you never have, let it be today. Let's get this done. Go to our website. I'll be there in a way to meet you there with information that will help you get started. It's ANewStory.com. Or just text us at 442-244-WORD.
Superman really is breakable or broken. Don't make that eternally fatal mistake of being so proud you die from it. Your Savior is waiting!