Max Lucado Daily: God's Love Will Not Let Go
George Matheson was a teenager when doctors told him he was going blind. He graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1861. By the time he finished graduate seminary studies, he was sightless. His fiancé returned his engagement ring with a note. I cannot see my way clear to go through life bound by the chains of marriage to a blind man.
Matheson adapted to his sightless world but never quite recovered from his broken heart. He became a powerful and poetic pastor, led a full and inspiring life, turning to the unending love of God for comfort. And he penned these words:
"O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer fuller be."
The love of people may come and go, but God's love will never leave you.
From: 3:16
2 Thessalonians 1
Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,[b] and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
11 With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. 12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.[c]
Footnotes:
2 Thessalonians 1:1 Greek Silvanus, a variant of Silas
2 Thessalonians 1:3 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 2:1, 13, 15; 3:1, 6, 13.
2 Thessalonians 1:12 Or God and Lord, Jesus Christ
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 08, 2016
Read: John 11:17-27
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles[a] down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. 20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”
25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[b] Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”
Footnotes:
11:18 Greek was about 15 stadia [about 2.8 kilometers].
11:25 Some manuscripts do not include and the life.
INSIGHT:
Martha, Lazarus’s sister, is one of the most misunderstood characters in the New Testament. We usually think of her in the context of Luke 10:38–42, where Jesus challenges her misdirected priorities. This often leads to the conclusion that she was somehow spiritually inferior to her sister, Mary. However, Martha is the one who expresses her confidence in Christ to do something about the death of her brother (John 11:21–22). And she makes a wonderful statement on the deity of Christ, showing that she, in fact, had great depth of spiritual understanding (v. 27). Bill Crowder
In Transition
By Lawrence Darmani
We will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:17
People post obituary notices on billboards and concrete block walls in Ghana regularly. Headlines such as Gone Too Soon, Celebration of Life, and What a Shock! announce the passing away of loved ones and the approaching funerals. One I read—In Transition—points to life beyond the grave.
When a close relative or friend dies, we sorrow as Mary and Martha did for their brother Lazarus (John 11:17-27). We miss the departed so much that our hearts break and we weep, as Jesus wept at the passing of His friend (v. 35).
"Whoever lives by believing in me will never die." John 11:25
Yet, it was at this sorrowful moment Jesus made a delightful statement on life after death: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (v. 25).
On the basis of this we give departed believers only a temporary farewell. For they “will be with the Lord forever,” Paul emphasizes (1 Thess. 4:17). Of course, farewells are painful, but we can rest assured that they are in the Lord’s safe hands.
In Transition suggests that we are only changing from one situation to another. Though life on earth ends for us, we will continue to live forever and better in the next life where Jesus is. “Therefore encourage one another with these words” (v. 18).
It is because of You, Jesus, that we have hope and are sure of a forever life. We’re grateful.
For help in dealing with loss, read Life After Loss at discoveryseries.org/cb131
Because of Jesus, we can live forever.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 08, 2016
His Resurrection Destiny
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? —Luke 24:26
Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.
Christ’s resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life— a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we will have a body like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).
Jesus prayed, “…as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him” (John 17:2). The term Holy Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us, if we will only obey Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 08, 2016
When Your Spring Is Almost Here - #7630
As many of us northerners know, the beginning of Spring does not necessarily coincide with the official date on the calendar, unfortunately! For some of us it's Spring when we see the first Robin, or the first blossom, or green grass. For me, it's Spring the day the forsythia comes out. They appear suddenly. I'm driving along the highway one day, they're not there, and then the next day there's yellow everywhere! I want to yell out the window, "Hey everybody! It's Spring today!" Actually none of this Spring explosion of color is really sudden. Those flowers have been getting ready to bloom for weeks; it's just that I couldn't see them until now.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Your Spring Is Almost Here."
There's a basic principle in how our creator God works. A lot of what He does is invisible – like the coming of Spring or the coming of a baby. It's quite a while before we can actually see any evidence of a baby developing inside his Mom. In fact it takes a test to verify that God's actually begun a new life. Again, God at work invisibly. If you based it on what you could see, you'd conclude that God isn't doing anything.
Well, keep that in mind as we look at our word for today from the Word of God, Mark 4:35, "That day when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let's go over to the other side.' Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along, just as He was, in the boat. There were also other boats with Him. A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown.' He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Quiet. Be still'. And then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to His disciples, 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?' And they were terrified and asked each other, 'Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!'" Now Jesus found His disciples saying "We're in a jam and Jesus isn't doing anything!" And they even went further. They said, "Don't you care?" They were making all kinds of mistakes and accusations because they were basing everything on what they could see Jesus doing.
Maybe you're making that same kind of mistake right now. Things seem increasingly out of control. You're nearly swamped. You've been praying about it but Jesus doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. Or is He? He's promised, in Romans 8:28, "God is working all things together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose."
Right now, through this ongoing process, He's working them together. God is preparing your answer for you and He's preparing you for your answer. But, like plants getting ready to bloom, and babies getting ready to be born, much of Gods working is invisible. We mistake God being invisible in our situation for God being inactive in our situation. Wrong! He's never inactive when it comes to the concerns of His kids.
On that stormy lake that day the disciples panicked unnecessarily because they couldn't see Jesus doing anything. They succumbed to unbelief, even with a Savior who had never let them down. Maybe your storm is having the same effect on you. It looks as if things are out of control. But there is no such thing as out of control when you belong to the God who rules everything. Calming your storm is nothing for Him, He just says, "Quiet, be still!" His problem is with calming you. Maybe it's you that's out of control.
Jesus has never let a storm sink you yet. He's never left you unprovided for, and over and over in the past He's amazed you with His power, with his timing. Is this going to be different? No way! Like those Forsythia flowers, God's working will one day blossom suddenly and you'll be amazed again. But right now, when you can see nothing but more Winter, your Lord is skillfully and faithfully preparing your Spring. Don't lose hope; don't lose faith now! One day soon you'll be ready to shout out the window, "It's Spring again!"
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