Max Lucado Daily: STAY IN HIS SHADOW
On the night before the crucifixion, Peter kept his distance from Jesus. I’ll stay close enough to see him, Peter reasoned, but not too close, or I may get caught. Good thinking, Peter. Don’t get too involved—it might hurt. Don’t show too much concern—they’ll crucify you too.
That’s the kind of man God needs, yessir. One who knows how to keep his distance. “Now, I’ll pay my dues and I’ll come once a week but. . .well. . .you can get carried away, you know.” Yes, you can get carried away. . .up a hill. . .to a cross—and killed!
Peter learned a hard lesson that day. It’s better to have never followed Jesus than to have followed him and denied him! You won’t die for a man you can’t touch…period. But stay near to him, in his shadow…you’ll die with him, gladly!
From God is With You Every Day
Joel 1
Get in Touch with Reality—and Weep!
God’s Message to Joel son of Pethuel:
Attention, elder statesmen! Listen closely,
everyone, whoever and wherever you are!
Have you ever heard of anything like this?
Has anything like this ever happened before—ever?
Make sure you tell your children,
and your children tell their children,
And their children their children.
Don’t let this message die out.
4 What the chewing locust left,
the gobbling locust ate;
What the gobbling locust left,
the munching locust ate;
What the munching locust left,
the chomping locust ate.
5-7 Sober up, you drunks!
Get in touch with reality—and weep!
Your supply of booze is cut off.
You’re on the wagon, like it or not.
My country’s being invaded
by an army invincible, past numbering,
Teeth like those of a lion,
fangs like those of a tiger.
It has ruined my vineyards,
stripped my orchards,
And clear-cut the country.
The landscape’s a moonscape.
8-10 Weep like a young virgin dressed in black,
mourning the loss of her fiancé.
Without grain and grapes,
worship has been brought to a standstill
in the Sanctuary of God.
The priests are at a loss.
God’s ministers don’t know what to do.
The fields are sterile.
The very ground grieves.
The wheat fields are lifeless,
vineyards dried up, olive oil gone.
11-12 Dirt farmers, despair!
Grape growers, wring your hands!
Lament the loss of wheat and barley.
All crops have failed.
Vineyards dried up,
fig trees withered,
Pomegranates, date palms, and apple trees—
deadwood everywhere!
And joy is dried up and withered
in the hearts of the people.
Nothing’s Going On in the Place of Worship
13-14 And also you priests,
put on your robes and join the outcry.
You who lead people in worship,
lead them in lament.
Spend the night dressed in gunnysacks,
you servants of my God.
Nothing’s going on in the place of worship,
no offerings, no prayers—nothing.
Declare a holy fast, call a special meeting,
get the leaders together,
Round up everyone in the country.
Get them into God’s Sanctuary for serious prayer to God.
15-18 What a day! Doomsday!
God’s Judgment Day has come.
The Strong God has arrived.
This is serious business!
Food is just a memory at our tables,
as are joy and singing from God’s Sanctuary.
The seeds in the field are dead,
barns deserted,
Grain silos abandoned.
Who needs them? The crops have failed!
The farm animals groan—oh, how they groan!
The cattle mill around.
There’s nothing for them to eat.
Not even the sheep find anything.
19-20 God! I pray, I cry out to you!
The fields are burning up,
The country is a dust bowl,
forest and prairie fires rage unchecked.
Wild animals, dying of thirst,
look to you for a drink.
Springs and streams are dried up.
The whole country is burning up.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
Read: Ephesians 3:14–21
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
INSIGHT:
Paul knew intimately and intensely the power of God to do things that could not be imagined. His own conversion from persecutor of the church to follower of Christ was a perfect example of the power of God (see Acts 9). In his letter to the young pastor Timothy (the pastor of the church in Ephesus), Paul refers to the power of God in the improbability of his conversion. It is only by the power and grace of God that “a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man” (1 Tim. 1:13) could be transformed into a man who, when in prison and facing capital punishment could say “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).
More Than We Can Imagine
By David McCasland
To him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20
What are the five best toys of all time? Jonathan H. Liu suggested the following: A stick, a box, string, a cardboard tube, and dirt (GeekDad column at wired.com). All are readily available, versatile, appropriate for all ages, fit every budget, and are powered by imagination. No batteries required.
Imagination plays a powerful role in our lives, so it’s not unusual that the apostle Paul mentioned it in his prayer for the followers of Jesus in Ephesus (Eph. 3:14–21). After asking God to strengthen them with His power through His Spirit (v. 16), Paul prayed that they would be able to grasp and experience the full dimension of the love of Christ (vv. 17–19). In closing, Paul gave glory to “him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (v. 20).
God is able to do far more than we may dare to ask or even dream of.
Often our experience limits our prayers—a situation we can’t picture being different; destructive habits that remain unbroken; long-held attitudes that seem to defy change. As time passes, we may begin to feel that some things cannot be changed. But Paul says that is not true.
By God’s mighty power working in us, He is able to do far more than we may dare to ask or even dream of.
Dear Father, help us today to embrace all that You have given us in Your Son—forgiveness, hope, encouragement, and power to live a new life.
Never measure God’s unlimited power by your limited expectations.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
The Compelling Purpose of God
He…said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem…" —Luke 18:31
Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Seeking to do “the will of the Father” was the one dominating concern throughout our Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. “…He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem…” (Luke 9:51).
The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose of God. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” (John 15:16).
We are not taken into a conscious agreement with God’s purpose— we are taken into God’s purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no idea what God’s goal may be; as we continue, His purpose becomes even more and more vague. God’s aim appears to have missed the mark, because we are too nearsighted to see the target at which He is aiming. At the beginning of the Christian life, we have our own ideas as to what God’s purpose is. We say, “God means for me to go over there,” and, “God has called me to do this special work.” We do what we think is right, and yet the compelling purpose of God remains upon us. The work we do is of no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is simply the scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan. “He took the twelve aside…” (Luke 18:31). God takes us aside all the time. We have not yet understood all there is to know of the compelling purpose of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
Fatal Charades - #7713
I invented this little game to play with our two young grandsons - Bible Charades. We tried it one Sunday afternoon during a visit to our house, and then they wanted to do it every time. It's pretty simple. Just write a brief description of several Bible stories on cards, and then the boys would take turns drawing a card and acting out the story with either their Daddy or me as their teammate. Whoever isn't playing is supposed to be guessing. My favorite was when the younger boy-who was three-years-old-was David and his tall Daddy was Goliath. That worked. The little guy pretended that this dishtowel was his slingshot, and he spun it around his head-followed by Daddy holding his forehead and crashing dramatically to the living room floor. No talking is allowed. You can only act it out. One problem: our five-year-old grandson knew a lot more Bible stories than his three-year-old brother, which made this game pretty challenging and sometimes kind of frustrating for the little guy. The story that we hoped that he'd guess by our actions might be a story he doesn't even know!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fatal Charades."
Some of us have been playing Bible Charades for a long time-acting out a story we hope the people around us will guess by our actions and no words. If you've ever played real charades, you know there are some things people just aren't going to figure out without your putting it into words. So it is with the most important story of all-the story of what Jesus did on the cross to pay for the sins of each person who knows you; the story of the spiritual Rescuer from heaven who not only died for them, but who's alive for them because He walked out of His grave three days later!
Many followers of Jesus are committed to what some have called "lifestyle evangelism." And that's very important-demonstrating in your everyday life the difference that Jesus makes, creating curiosity about Him in the hearts of people who don't know Him. It's important, but it's not enough. See, they're not going to guess the Gospel. They could watch you for the next fifty years. They're not going to suddenly say, "You know Charlie is such a nice guy, I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sins!" They're not going to figure that out! You have to tell them. Gospel Charades will turn out to be fatal charades for them if you never tell them what Jesus did for them on the cross!
Paul's prayer in our word for today from the Word of God needs to be your prayer and mine. In Ephesians 6:19-20, he says, "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel." (By the way, it's going to be a mystery to the people around you until you tell them about it!) He goes on to say, "Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." (Ephesians 6:20) In Colossians 4:3-4, Paul asks for prayer that "God will open a door for us." Now, a door? That's a natural opportunity to bring up your relationship with Jesus and the difference He makes in everyday life.
I call this the "three-open prayer". Prayed each new day, it can give you some exciting opportunities to be a spiritual rescuer for some people who are spiritually dying all around you. It goes like this: "Lord, open a door." See, you're trusting Him to open those natural opportunities and to help you see them when He does. Then, "Lord, open their heart." Get them ready, Lord, to hear about you before I ever speak to them. And finally, "Lord, (This might be the toughest one!) open my mouth." Give me the courage, the words, the approach to use to point this person to you. Can you try it with me? "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth."
Don't just depend on your acting out Jesus-your Gospel charades-to give someone you care about the life-or-death information they've got to have to go to heaven. There's too much at stake for that. For you to remain silent about what you know about Jesus could be, in essence, a death sentence for them because of your silence.
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