Max Lucado Daily: Revamped Expectations
How do you respond when you hear something like this: I'm sorry-you didn't get the job. We just felt our other candidate was more qualified!
It's not easy when God doesn't do what we want, is it? Never has been. Never will be. But faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life and He will get us through it. Remember, disappointment is cured by revamped expectations!
I like the story about the fellow who went to the pet store for a singing parakeet. He was a bachelor and his house was too quiet. The store owner had just the bird for him, so the man bought it. The next day the bachelor came home to a house full of music. He went to the cage to feed the bird and noticed for the first time that the parakeet had only one leg. He felt cheated. So he called and complained. "What do you want," the store owner responded, "a bird who can sing or a bird who can dance?" Good question for times of disappointment!
From Grace for the Moment
Ecclesiastes 3
A Time for Everything
3 For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. 15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.
The Injustices of Life
16 I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt! 17 I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”
18 I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. 19 For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe[d] and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! 20 Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust. 21 For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth? 22 So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is our lot in life. And no one can bring us back to see what happens after we die.
Footnotes:
3:19 Or both have the same spirit.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 03, 2015
Read: Ezekiel 25:1-7; Matthew 5:43-48
Ezekiel 25:1-7
A Message for Ammon
Then this message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Son of man, turn and face the land of Ammon and prophesy against its people. 3 Give the Ammonites this message from the Sovereign Lord: Hear the word of the Sovereign Lord! Because you cheered when my Temple was defiled, mocked Israel in her desolation, and laughed at Judah as she went away into exile, 4 I will allow nomads from the eastern deserts to overrun your country. They will set up their camps among you and pitch their tents on your land. They will harvest all your fruit and drink the milk from your livestock. 5 And I will turn the city of Rabbah into a pasture for camels, and all the land of the Ammonites into a resting place for sheep and goats. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
6 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you clapped and danced and cheered with glee at the destruction of my people, 7 I will raise my fist of judgment against you. I will give you as plunder to many nations. I will cut you off from being a nation and destroy you completely. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Matthew 5:43-48
Teaching about Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’[a] and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies![b] Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[c] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Footnotes:
5:43 Lev 19:18.
5:44 Some manuscripts add Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Compare Luke 6:27-28.
5:47 Greek your brothers.
When Not to Rejoice
By Lawrence Darmani
Do not gloat when your enemy falls. Proverbs 24:17
The Akan people of Ghana have a proverb: “The lizard is not as mad with the boys who threw stones at it as with the boys who stood by and rejoiced over its fate!” Rejoicing at someone’s downfall is like participating in the cause of that downfall or even wishing more evil on the person.
That was the attitude of the Ammonites who maliciously rejoiced when the temple in Jerusalem “was desecrated and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste and over the people of Judah when they went into exile” (Ezek. 25:3). For spitefully celebrating Israel’s misfortunes, the Ammonites experienced God’s displeasure, which resulted in grim consequences (vv. 4-7).
How do we react when disaster befalls our neighbor or when our neighbor gets into trouble? If she is a nice and friendly neighbor, then, of course, we will sympathize with her and go to her aid. But what if he is an unfriendly, trouble-making neighbor? Our natural tendency may be to ignore him or even secretly rejoice at his downfall.
Proverbs warns us: “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice” (24:17). Instead, Jesus tells us that we show His love in action when we “love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us]” (Matt. 5:44). By so doing, we imitate the perfect love of our Lord (5:48).
Lord, open my eyes and my heart to be honest about my attitude toward those who are unkind or unfair to me. Fill my heart with Your love, Lord, and help me pray for them.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 03, 2015
“Not by Might nor by Power”
My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power… —1 Corinthians 2:4
If in preaching the gospel you substitute your knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the gospel, you hinder people from getting to reality. Take care to see while you proclaim your knowledge of the way of salvation, that you yourself are rooted and grounded by faith in God. Never rely on the clearness of your presentation, but as you give your explanation make sure that you are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God’s redemptive power, and He will create His own life in people.
Once you are rooted in reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith. But nothing can ever change God or the reality of redemption. Base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God Himself. Once you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God disapproves of our human efforts to cling to the concept that sanctification is merely an experience, while forgetting that even our sanctification must also be sanctified (see John 17:19). I must deliberately give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. Disciples Indeed, 393 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 03, 2015
Unused Capabilities - #7539
Through the years of ministry, God has miraculously provided so many things through His people that we'd have never been able to buy. So much of the furniture and equipment in our office is like a God-story.
I remember when we got the new telephone system. A Christian brother was upgrading the system at his company and he donated his old system to us. And that old system was great for us! The phones had a battery of buttons on them, but most of those buttons we had just been looking at or ignoring. We didn't have much of an idea what they did. And our team was so busy no one had really taken the time to read the manual.
Finally, we assigned that research to Jeff. And he reported back to our team with some amazing news! He showed us all kinds of sophisticated tricks the phones could do, and here we were settling for just a phone line and the "hold" button. Those phones turned out to be amazing for us. We had been slumming it when we could have been going in style!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unused Capabilities."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God. We're in Matthew 14:25. Jesus' disciples were out in a boat and they were being battered by a violent storm. Let me read it to you. "During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. 'It's a ghost', they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, 'Take courage, It is I, Don't be afraid.' 'Lord, if it's You,' Peter replied, 'tell me to come to You on the water.' 'Come,' He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus."
All the disciples were just trying to ride out the storm. But Peter suddenly got a glimpse of the power of his Master and of something supernatural he could do if he risked everything on Jesus. And suddenly Peter was doing what people don't do. He was walking on water!
The fact is that Jesus may be preparing you to step up to something far more supernatural than you've ever been or you've ever done before. In fact, He's made your heart restless for more so you would get out of the boat and start walking toward Him in an exciting new way. Peter found out that day that if Jesus wants you to do it – no matter how beyond your capability it may be – He will give you whatever it takes to do it.
A lot of our Christian lives are like our team and those multi-faceted phones. We're settling for a level that is far below where we could be living. We're looking at all those spiritual buttons. Maybe we know some other people who have tapped into those capabilities, but we're settling for a powerless life when Christ in us wants to make our life really powerful. We're settling for the mediocre when we're wired for the miraculous.
You have the Holy Spirit of Almighty God living in your body. You have backing you up the authority that Jesus has over everything in this universe. You have Jesus' resurrection power in your life. Are you living like it? Are you settling for only pushing a couple of God's buttons when there are so many more that could open up a whole new frontier for you?
You need to be reading the Manual. You know that's the Bible, and you need to be reading it every day. Not just for theology, but looking for the keys to powerful faith and then using them. And tell the Lord, "Lord, I want the "something more" you've made my heart hungry for. Surrender yourself in a new, fresh way to Him. With all the things that are going on in your life now, update that old surrender. Let go of those areas that you've insisted on controlling. Get out of that safe little boat and dare to walk where you've never walked before!
Your Lord is "able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20) Immeasurably more. Like our phone system, it's all right there. You got it when you got Jesus. It's time you began to be and to do all you were created for. So go and become what you were born to be.