Max Lucado Daily: YOUR LIFE A CRAFTED NARRATIVE
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
You are in the hands of living, loving God! Your life is a crafted narrative written by a good God, working toward your supreme good. God is not making up a plan as he goes along. Nor did he wind up the clock and walk away.
Daniel 5:21 says, “The Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.” And Jeremiah 30:24 says, “The LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intentions of his mind.”
Look at those verbs: God rules, sets, executes, accomplishes. These texts confirm the heavenly blueprints and plans. And those plans include you!
From God is With You Every Day
Psalm 73
BOOK III
Psalms 73–89
Psalm 73
A psalm of Asaph.
1 Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.[a]
5 They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity[b];
their evil imaginations have no limits.
8 They scoff, and speak with malice;
with arrogance they threaten oppression.
9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10 Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.[c]
11 They say, “How would God know?
Does the Most High know anything?”
12 This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
14 All day long I have been afflicted,
and every morning brings new punishments.
15 If I had spoken out like that,
I would have betrayed your children.
16 When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
18 Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
19 How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
20 They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.
21 When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
22 I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.
Footnotes:
Psalm 73:4 With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text struggles at their death; / their bodies are healthy
Psalm 73:7 Syriac (see also Septuagint); Hebrew Their eyes bulge with fat
Psalm 73:10 The meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, June 09, 2016
Read: Philippians 2:1–11
Have the Attitude of Christ
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God,[a]
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];
he took the humble position of a slave[c]
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,[d]
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Footnotes:
2:6 Or Being in the form of God.
2:7a Greek he emptied himself.
2:7b Or the form of a slave.
2:7c Some English translations put this phrase in verse 8.
INSIGHT:
Today’s passage has remarkable insights into the incarnation. The Son of God willingly took on human form and came to earth to redeem fallen sinners. But that was just the beginning of Christ’s self-humbling. He took upon Himself the form of a servant and then died on a cross of shame. But once the price of sin had been paid through His death, Christ was gloriously raised from the dead and given a name that is above every name. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord (v. 10).
What Really Matters
By Bill Crowder
In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3–4
Two men sat down to review their business trip and its results. One said he thought the trip had been worthwhile because some meaningful new relationships had begun through their business contacts. The other said, “Relationships are fine, but selling is what matters most.” Obviously they had very different agendas.
It is all too easy—whether in business, family, or church—to view others from the perspective of how they can benefit us. We value them for what we can get from them, rather than focusing on how we can serve them in Jesus’s name. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Phil. 2:3–4).
Joy comes from putting another’s needs ahead of our own.
People are not to be used for our own benefit. Because they are loved by God and we are loved by Him, we love one another. His love is the greatest love of all.
Teach me, Lord, to see people as You do—bearing Your image, being worthy of Your love, and needing Your care. May Your great love find in my heart a vessel through which that love can be displayed.
Joy comes from putting another’s needs ahead of our own.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, June 09, 2016
Then What’s Next To Do?
Everyone who asks receives… —Luke 11:10
Ask if you have not received. There is nothing more difficult than asking. We will have yearnings and desires for certain things, and even suffer as a result of their going unfulfilled, but not until we are at the limit of desperation will we ask. It is the sense of not being spiritually real that causes us to ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of your total insufficiency and poverty? “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God…” (James 1:5), but be sure that you do lack wisdom before you ask. You cannot bring yourself to the point of spiritual reality anytime you choose. The best thing to do, once you realize you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for the Holy Spirit, basing your request on the promise of Jesus Christ (see Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the one who makes everything that Jesus did for you real in your life.
“Everyone who asks receives….” This does not mean that you will not get if you do not ask, but it means that until you come to the point of asking, you will not receive from God (seeMatthew 5:45). To be able to receive means that you have to come into the relationship of a child of God, and then you comprehend and appreciate mentally, morally, and with spiritual understanding, that these things come from God.
“If any of you lacks wisdom….” If you realize that you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality— do not put the blinders of reason on again. The word ask actually means “beg.” Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are poor enough spiritually to show our interest. Yet we will never receive if we ask with a certain result in mind, because we are asking out of our lust, not out of our poverty. A pauper does not ask out of any reason other than the completely hopeless and painful condition of his poverty. He is not ashamed to beg— blessed are the paupers in spirit (see Matthew 5:3).
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, 903 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, June 09, 2016
Shaping Lives – The Jesus Plan - #7674
It was during the Gulf War, shortly before the ground troops attacked Saddam Hussein's forces in Desert Storm. Everyone knew he had large stores of chemical weapons and that the Allied soldiers were in danger of those weapons being unleashed on them. I saw this interview on television back then. It was with an American soldier who talked about the training the troops were receiving in chemical warfare. Here's what she said, "You know, it's funny. They taught us about chemical warfare in basic training, but no one paid any attention. But now, well, everyone's really paying attention, taking notes, asking questions."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Shaping Lives – The Jesus Plan."
Those soldiers were suddenly motivated to learn what they had been taught because now they needed it. Now they were about to use it. You can see that dynamic when you take young people on a missions trip. Kids who seldom read their Bible or pray or pay attention are suddenly on a rock early in the morning reading their Bible. They're praying out loud. They're asking questions! Why? Because they're in a situation, like those Gulf War soldiers, where they're going to need what they know - where they're going to use it!
Jesus knew that. He trained His future leaders that way, and, in the process, He showed us a process for getting people to really learn what we're teaching them and to do what they learned. That's discipling. If you're a parent, a teacher, a spiritual coach, a pastor, a youth leader, you need to build your ministry on this powerful pattern for life-changing teaching.
Our word for today from the Word of God gives it to us in Luke 9 beginning at verse 1. "When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases (which, by the way, they had watched Him do in the previous chapter), and He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God (there are three things, by the way that they had a chance to watch Him do-watch Him, and then do it). So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere. When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. "
Well, you just saw Jesus' method of shaping a life. First, you teach the truth to people by word and by example. We generally do that part pretty well, but we stop there. So it never makes it past the person's head. That's why we need to do what Jesus did here: He had them immediately go out and do a little of what they just learned. That immediately connects their belief to their behavior, instead of what they believe being just a compartment. That's really important in a world where too many Christians just believe their beliefs, but they don't behave them. The final step in the life-changing process is to bring them back to talk about what happened when they did what they were taught.
You really could compress this into just a few words: learn it, do it, talk about it. That is a practical, workable definition of what it truly means to disciple a person. Discipling is getting them to connect their beliefs to their behavior. And if they learn it and they do some of what they just learned, and they come back and they talk about how it went - that's life changing.
For those soldiers in the Gulf War, the teaching didn't come alive until they had an immediate need for it, an immediate opportunity to put it into practice. So we need to give our children, our students, our congregation, our youth group the truth with projects - an immediate short-term assignment say, the next week, in which they do something that puts that teaching into practice. Your teaching is incomplete until you've given them something to do as a result of it. And then give them an opportunity to come back and talk about what happened.
Learn it, do it, talk about it. That's teaching that goes way beyond filling a head with spiritual facts. It changes lives!
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