Max Lucado Daily: The Crown of Righteousness
We are frail creatures. We are not made of steel, we're made from dust. And this life is not crowned with life, it is crowned with death. The next life, however, is different!
In Revelation 2:10, Jesus urged the Christians in Smyrna to "be faithful, even if you have to die, and I will give you the crown of life." You will also receive the crown of righteousness.
Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now there is waiting for me, the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord. . .will give me on that Day and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear."
Set your heart on that day. Crowned with life. Crowned with righteousness. Forever!
From When Christ Comes
Psalm 97
The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all peoples see his glory.
7 All who worship images are put to shame,
those who boast in idols—
worship him, all you gods!
8 Zion hears and rejoices
and the villages of Judah are glad
because of your judgments, Lord.
9 For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light shines[b] on the righteous
and joy on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
and praise his holy name.
Footnotes:
Psalm 97:11 One Hebrew manuscript and ancient versions (see also 112:4); most Hebrew manuscripts Light is sown
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Read: Psalm 146:1-10
Psalm 146
Praise the Lord!
Let all that I am praise the Lord.
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.
3 Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.
4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
and all their plans die with them.
5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel[a] as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He made heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them.
He keeps every promise forever.
7 He gives justice to the oppressed
and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
The Lord loves the godly.
9 The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
He cares for the orphans and widows,
but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
10 The Lord will reign forever.
He will be your God, O Jerusalem,[b] throughout the generations.
Praise the Lord!
Footnotes:
146:5 Hebrew of Jacob. See note on 44:4.
146:10 Hebrew Zion.
INSIGHT:
In today’s psalm, the psalmist responds in grateful worship as he reflects on the greatness and grace of God. He invites us to trust the Lord, to look to Him for help, and to place our hope in Him. He is the omnipotent, eternal God, the Creator who is forever faithful (vv. 5–6), just, benevolent, gracious, compassionate, and loving (vv. 7–9). The psalmist’s message is a simple one: Trust in God, not in man, for only those who trust God can be truly blessed.
Looking Up
By David McCasland
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. Psalm 146:8
An article in the Surgical Technology International journal says that looking down at a smart phone with your head bent forward is the equivalent of having a 60-pound weight on your neck. When we consider that millions of people around the world spend an average of 2-4 hours daily reading and texting, the resulting damage to neck and spine becomes a growing health concern.
It is also easy to become spiritually bowed down by the burdens of life. How often we find ourselves discouraged by the problems we face and the needs of those we love. The psalmist understood this weight of concern yet saw hope as he wrote about “the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—[who] remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous” (Ps. 146:6-8).
We can walk through each day knowing that "the LORD reigns forever!"
When we consider God’s care, His great power, and His loving heart, we can begin to look up and praise Him. We can walk through each day knowing that “the Lord reigns forever . . . for all generations” (v. 10).
He lifts us up when we are bowed down. Praise the Lord!
O Lord, lift our eyes to see Your power and love today so we can raise our heads and our hearts in grateful praise to You.
Faith in God’s goodness puts a song in your heart.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
The Discipline of Dismay
As they followed they were afraid. —Mark 10:32
At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love. But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar— “Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed” (Mark 10:32).
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple’s heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set “like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me. He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing. All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.
Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar. When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don’t know Him. We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 50:10-11). But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Choices Without Regrets - #7612
I don't know how long Presidential candidates have had campaign songs, but I'll bet George Washington even had one! Now, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's was pretty famous, as it represented the Great Depression "Happy Days Are Here Again." Bill Clinton had a song for his 1992 campaign. In fact, he reached back to 1977 for his song "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." They used it so much people wanted to sing, "Please Stop Singing About Tomorrow." Now I don't know how you felt about the candidate, and I don't even know if you liked the song...but it's not a bad theme for your campaign!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Choices Without Regrets."
Our word for today from the Word of God takes a look at somebody who did, with painful results. Esau was the oldest son of Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob was his younger brother. Jacob wanted the birthright. But it was Esau's to receive because he was born first, and that meant he received double inheritance. He'd run the family when his father died. What a privilege! And he gets to do that just because he was born first. But it wasn't going to happen that way.
Genesis 25:29 - "When Jacob was cooking some stew one day Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, "'Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!' Jacob replied, 'First sell me your birthright.' 'Look, I'm about to die,' Esau said. 'What good is the birthright to me?' But Jacob said, 'Swear to me first.' So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread, and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised (or didn't think much about) his birthright."
Esau made a choice, a terrible choice here based solely on what would meet his need right now. Man, I want to scream at the Bible, "Esau, don't do it! This is a terrible deal." Guess what? His need was met, but he had that need again the next morning, and he sacrificed his tomorrows for it.
In fact, in Hebrews 12:16-17 we find out what happened later in life. "See that no one is...like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward...when he wanted to inherit this blessing he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind though he sought the blessing with tears." A lifetime of regret because of what he did to meet one need one day.
See, God wants you to make "no regrets" choices. That means you don't make Esau's mistake: meet a need; lose a treasure. The need will return as soon as the pot of stew wears off, but the treasure you paid for it could be gone forever. You could be on the edge of that kind of short term decision right now. You really want to be married and not alone anymore, and you're about to marry the wrong person to meet the need. And that will lead you to the loneliest lonely of all.
Maybe the pot of stew solution is in your finances, a way that will take care of the immediate need, but cost you so much later on. Maybe it's tempting right now to just compromise your integrity a little, or your reputation to get something you want, or to keep something you don't want to lose. But is it worth the scars that will be there long after this moment is gone? It could be that your needs are drawing you toward a sexual sin before marriage or outside of your marriage. The bill will last a whole lot longer than the thrill.
God knows how good that pot of stew is looking to you right now and how you're minimizing what you're going to lose. And guess what? He brought us together today to intervene before you lose a birthright; something with lifetime value. This is a loving voice from Jesus saying, "Please don't do this; it will cost you too much." There is no need so important that it is worth losing a lifetime treasure to meet it. Please, don't stop thinking about tomorrow.
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