Max Lucado Daily: WHAT WILL JESUS DO WITH YOU?
Jesus claimed to be able to forgive sins—a privilege only God can exercise! In Matthew 12:6-42, Jesus claimed to be greater than Jonah, Solomon, Jacob, and even Abraham! He commanded people to pray in his name. He claimed that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him. Does a decent fellow say things like this? No, but a demented fool does.
But honestly, could a madman do what Jesus did? People didn’t just respect Jesus. They liked him; they left their homes and businesses and followed him. Men and women have tethered their hope to his life; passionate men like John, careful men like Thomas, and impulsive people like Peter. Jesus transformed common dockworkers and net casters into the authors of history’s greatest book and founders of its greatest movement. What will Jesus do with you?
From God is With You Every Day
Psalm 87
Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. A song.
1 He has founded his city on the holy mountain.
2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the other dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are said of you,
city of God:[a]
4 “I will record Rahab[b] and Babylon
among those who acknowledge me—
Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush[c]—
and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’”[d]
5 Indeed, of Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one were born in her,
and the Most High himself will establish her.”
6 The Lord will write in the register of the peoples:
“This one was born in Zion.”
7 As they make music they will sing,
“All my fountains are in you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, June 13, 2016
Read: Psalm 141
A psalm of David.
1 O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry!
Listen when I cry to you for help!
2 Accept my prayer as incense offered to you,
and my upraised hands as an evening offering.
3 Take control of what I say, O Lord,
and guard my lips.
4 Don’t let me drift toward evil
or take part in acts of wickedness.
Don’t let me share in the delicacies
of those who do wrong.
5 Let the godly strike me!
It will be a kindness!
If they correct me, it is soothing medicine.
Don’t let me refuse it.
But I pray constantly
against the wicked and their deeds.
6 When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff,
the wicked will listen to my words and find them true.
7 Like rocks brought up by a plow,
the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial.[a]
8 I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord.
You are my refuge; don’t let them kill me.
9 Keep me from the traps they have set for me,
from the snares of those who do wrong.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
but let me escape.
Footnotes:
141:7 Hebrew our bones will be scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
NSIGHT:
This psalm is filled with meaningful prayers for protection and can be an encouragement for all of us. Because we live in a world cursed by sin, we need prayer for protection from the damage we can inflict on others in attitude, speech, and behavior (vv. 3–4) as well as protection from those who plan evil against us (vv. 9-10).
Repeat After Me
By Anne Cetas
Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. Psalm 141:3 (nlt)
When Rebecca stood on stage to speak at a conference, her first sentence into the microphone echoed around the room. It was a bit unsettling for her to hear her own words come back at her, and she had to adjust to the faulty sound system and try to ignore the echo of every word she spoke.
Imagine what it would be like to hear everything we say repeated! It wouldn’t be so bad to hear ourselves repeat "I love you" or "I was wrong" or “Thank You, Lord” or "I'm praying for you." But not all of our words are beautiful or gentle or kind. What about those angry outbursts or demeaning comments that no one wants to hear once, let alone twice—those words that we would really rather take back?
He forgives us when we fail.
Like the psalmist David, we long to have the Lord’s control over our words. He prayed, "Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips” (Ps. 141:3 nlt). And thankfully, the Lord wants to do that. He can help us control what we say. He can guard our lips.
As we learn to adjust to our own sound system by paying careful attention to what we say and praying about the words we speak, the Lord will patiently teach us and even empower us to have self-control. And best of all, He forgives us when we fail and is pleased with our desire for His help.
Can you think of something you said recently that you would like to take back? Ask the Lord to help you become aware of careless words.
Part of self-control is mouth-control.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 13, 2016
Getting There (3)
…come, follow Me. —Luke 18:22
Where our individual desire dies and sanctified surrender lives. One of the greatest hindrances in coming to Jesus is the excuse of our own individual temperament. We make our temperament and our natural desires barriers to coming to Jesus. Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires. We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself (see Romans 12:1). If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you— and His experiments always succeed. The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing Well, which is a continual Source of original life. The Spirit of God is a Well of water springing up perpetually fresh. A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.
If you abandon everything to Jesus, and come when He says, “Come,” then He will continue to say, “Come,” through you. You will go out into the world reproducing the echo of Christ’s “Come.” That is the result in every soul who has abandoned all and come to Jesus.
Have I come to Him? Will I come now?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, June 13, 2016
Your Plans, Not His - #7676
The youngest of our three children had the opportunity to observe what worked and what didn't work for his older brother and sister - especially when it came to getting or not getting their way in their social life. By the time he reached junior high, he had developed a very interesting approach to getting a "Yes" to what he wanted to do with his friends. He would come to us, he would lay out a thorough plan, let's say for this Friday night. He told us which five friends were going, where they were going, whose mother would drive them there, whose mother would drive them home, what time they would leave, what time they would get home. We had everything but photo IDs of the kids who were going. Although, I'm sure he probably would have supplied those upon request. Obviously, there was one problem with this exquisite planning. We weren't consulted until the plans were complete, and a "No" to him would be a "No" to five friends and two drivers! As a father, I'd give that boy an "A" for initiative, but an "F" for checking with your father before your plans are almost irreversible!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Plans, Not His."
When you make your plans and arrangements before you check with your father, that's kind of backwards planning! Especially if the father involved is your Heavenly Father! That's why He says what He says in our word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah 30 beginning at verse 1, "'Woe to the obstinate children,' declares the Lord, 'to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by My Spirit, heaping sin upon sin.'" God says, "You're making plans without consulting Me. You're figuring out ways to get it done that are not My ways of getting it done. And, as a result, you're just accumulating sin." Pretty sobering verses huh?
How often does God shake His head, and say to you or me, "Those plans aren't mine"? Being a planner as I am, being a make-it-happen person by nature, I have to really keep this passage right up front in my heart. Because people like me, and maybe like you, can do exactly what our son did when he was in junior high: figure out a way to get what we want and then presumptuously expect our Heavenly Father to sign off on it, even to bless it. It is just too easy to run ahead of God, to consult Him after we're already way down the road.
2 Chronicles 18 tells us about King Ahab's invitation to King Jehoshaphat to join him in a planned military campaign. Jehoshaphat gave some very wise advice, "First seek the counsel of the Lord" (2 Chron. 18:4). Well, that's good, "First, seek the counsel of the Lord." But when a prophet dared to give Ahab God's counsel - that this attack was going to cost him his life - the king ignored it and went ahead with what he wanted to do, what looked best to him. He did not come back alive.
I hope you will put that seven-word key to victory somewhere where you will never forget it. "First seek the counsel of the Lord" Do it before you make a purchase, before you begin a relationship, before you answer a question or a request, before you post on Facebook, before you start something new, before you hire someone, date someone, make a change, start pursuing your vision or your dream. Isn't this Proverbs 3:6, "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths."
Bob Pierce, who was the founder of the great world-wide ministry of World Vision, used to pray this powerful prayer - one I hope that you and I can make our own. "Lord, we ask not that You bless what we do, but that we do what You bless." Don't bring your plans to your Father after they're all done and virtually unchangeable. Start with your Father. Plans you conceive with Him are really unstoppable!
No comments:
Post a Comment