Max Lucado Daily: Jesus is Able!
Several years ago, I joined thousands who ran through the streets of San Antonio, raising money for breast cancer research. Most of us ran out of kindness, happy to log three miles and donate a few dollars to the cause. A few ran in memory of a loved one, others in honor of a cancer survivor. We ran for different reasons. But no runner was more passionate than one I spotted. A bandanna covered her bald head, dark circles shadowed her eyes. She had cancer. While we ran out of kindness, she ran out of conviction. She knows how cancer victims feel. She's been there.
So has Jesus. It says in Hebrews 2:18 that he is able to run to the cry of those who're being tempted and tested and tried. Whatever you are facing, Jesus knows how you feel! So go to him! He is able!
From Next Door Savior
2 Kings 8
The Woman from Shunem Returns Home
Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “Take your family and move to some other place, for the Lord has called for a famine on Israel that will last for seven years.” 2 So the woman did as the man of God instructed. She took her family and settled in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
3 After the famine ended she returned from the land of the Philistines, and she went to see the king about getting back her house and land. 4 As she came in, the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king had just said, “Tell me some stories about the great things Elisha has done.” 5 And Gehazi was telling the king about the time Elisha had brought a boy back to life. At that very moment, the mother of the boy walked in to make her appeal to the king about her house and land.
“Look, my lord the king!” Gehazi exclaimed. “Here is the woman now, and this is her son—the very one Elisha brought back to life!”
6 “Is this true?” the king asked her. And she told him the story. So he directed one of his officials to see that everything she had lost was restored to her, including the value of any crops that had been harvested during her absence.
Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad
7 Elisha went to Damascus, the capital of Aram, where King Ben-hadad lay sick. When someone told the king that the man of God had come, 8 the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift to the man of God. Then tell him to ask the Lord, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”
9 So Hazael loaded down forty camels with the finest products of Damascus as a gift for Elisha. He went to him and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”
10 And Elisha replied, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover.’ But actually the Lord has shown me that he will surely die!” 11 Elisha stared at Hazael[e] with a fixed gaze until Hazael became uneasy.[f] Then the man of God started weeping.
12 “What’s the matter, my lord?” Hazael asked him.
Elisha replied, “I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel. You will burn their fortified cities, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women!”
13 Hazael responded, “How could a nobody like me[g] ever accomplish such great things?”
Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you are going to be the king of Aram.”
14 When Hazael left Elisha and went back, the king asked him, “What did Elisha tell you?”
And Hazael replied, “He told me that you will surely recover.”
15 But the next day Hazael took a blanket, soaked it in water, and held it over the king’s face until he died. Then Hazael became the next king of Aram.
Jehoram Rules in Judah
16 Jehoram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah began to rule over Judah in the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel. 17 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 18 But Jehoram followed the example of the kings of Israel and was as wicked as King Ahab, for he had married one of Ahab’s daughters. So Jehoram did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. 19 But the Lord did not want to destroy Judah, for he had promised his servant David that his descendants would continue to rule, shining like a lamp forever.
20 During Jehoram’s reign, the Edomites revolted against Judah and crowned their own king. 21 So Jehoram[h] went with all his chariots to attack the town of Zair.[i] The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he went out at night and attacked them[j] under cover of darkness. But Jehoram’s army deserted him and fled to their homes. 22 So Edom has been independent from Judah to this day. The town of Libnah also revolted about that same time.
23 The rest of the events in Jehoram’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. 24 When Jehoram died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Then his son Ahaziah became the next king.
Ahaziah Rules in Judah
25 Ahaziah son of Jehoram began to rule over Judah in the twelfth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel.
26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother was Athaliah, a granddaughter of King Omri of Israel. 27 Ahaziah followed the evil example of King Ahab’s family. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as Ahab’s family had done, for he was related by marriage to the family of Ahab.
28 Ahaziah joined Joram son of Ahab in his war against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth-gilead. When the Arameans wounded King Joram in the battle, 29 he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he had received at Ramoth.[k] Because Joram was wounded, King Ahaziah of Judah went to Jezreel to visit him.
Footnotes:
8:11a Hebrew He stared at him.
8:11b The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
8:13 Hebrew a dog.
8:21a Hebrew Joram, a variant spelling of Jehoram; also in 8:23, 24.
8:21b Greek version reads Seir.
8:21c Or he went out and escaped. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
8:29 Hebrew Ramah, a variant spelling of Ramoth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, January 11, 2016
Read: Romans 5:6–11
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
INSIGHT:
The word gospel means “good news,” and Romans 5 is the very heart of that gospel. Paul makes clear that the motive of the gospel is that God loves us despite our sins (v. 8). The need for the gospel is because of our sin and rebellion (vv. 8, 10). The act of the gospel is found in Christ’s sacrificial death for the undeserving (vv. 8–10). The result of the gospel is restored relationship with the God who created us for relationship with Him (v. 10). That is certainly good news!
You Have Value
By David Roper
You were bought at a price. 1 Corinthians 6:20
After my mother-in-law died, my wife and I discovered a cache of US Indian Head pennies in a dresser drawer in her apartment. She wasn’t a coin collector, as such, but she lived in the era when these pennies were in circulation and she had accumulated a few.
Some of these coins are in excellent condition; others are not. They are so worn and tarnished you can hardly see the imprint. All bear the stamp “One Cent” on the opposite side. Although a penny these days has little value and many consider them useless, this one-cent coin would have bought a newspaper in its day. And collectors still find value in them, even those that have been battered and abused.
Perhaps you feel tarnished, worn, old, or out of circulation. Even so, God finds value in you. The Creator of the universe wants you—not for your mind, your body, your clothes, your achievements, your intellect, or your personality, but because you are you! He would go any distance and pay any price to possess you (1 Cor. 6:20).
In fact He did. He came down to earth from heaven and purchased you with His own blood (Rom. 5:6, 8-9). That’s how much He wants you. You are valuable in His eyes, and He loves you.
As I think about Your love for me, Father, I wonder with amazement how You could love someone like me—and I praise You.
Christ’s death is the measure of God’s love for you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, January 11, 2016
What My Obedience to God Costs Other People
As they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon…, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. —Luke 23:26
If we obey God, it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the pain begins. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything— it is a delight. But to those who do not love Him, our obedience does cost a great deal. If we obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset. They will ridicule us as if to say, “You call this Christianity?” We could prevent the suffering, but not if we are obedient to God. We must let the cost be paid.
When our obedience begins to cost others, our human pride entrenches itself and we say, “I will never accept anything from anyone.” But we must, or disobey God. We have no right to think that the type of relationships we have with others should be any different from those the Lord Himself had (see Luke 8:1-3).
A lack of progress in our spiritual life results when we try to bear all the costs ourselves. And actually, we cannot. Because we are so involved in the universal purposes of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to Him. Will we remain faithful in our obedience to God and be willing to suffer the humiliation of refusing to be independent? Or will we do just the opposite and say, “I will not cause other people to suffer”? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but it will grieve our Lord. If, however, we obey God, He will care for those who have suffered the consequences of our obedience. We must simply obey and leave all the consequences with Him.
Beware of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a condition of your obedience to Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, January 11, 2016
Never Surrender - #7566
If you're from Texas, you know that Alamo is more than just a rental car agency. The Alamo, you know, is that old Spanish Mission in the heart of downtown San Antonio where an estimated 200 brave freedom fighters took their stand against the army of Mexico in the battle for Texas independence. Now, I've been there and I've seen the Alamo. And on my last visit, I was moved again by the sacrifice that those people made. They gave their lives for the cause of freedom. But only after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy army and inspiring what turned out to be the ultimate victory with the Texas battle cry, "Remember the Alamo!"
Now, Lieutenant Colonel William Travis was in command of the garrison that day as his valiant band stood against those overwhelming odds. I was really moved as I read the letter that Colonel Travis wrote addressed to The People of Texas and all Americans. In fact, I was so moved, I read part of it to the 5,000 young people I spoke to that night. He said, "The enemy has demanded a surrender. Otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword if the fort is taken." Listen to this, "I have answered the demand with a cannon shot! And our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat."
Man, that's more than history. That's a battle cry for you and me.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Never Surrender."
In the spiritual battle raging all around you, your enemy the Devil keeps calling for you to surrender to discouragement, to despair, to bitterness, to disobedience, to retreat. And during those grueling days when Satan tried to get our Lord to surrender to temptation, we learn how you can answer those temptations.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Luke 4, "...for forty days Jesus was tempted by the Devil" it says. "He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry. The Devil said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.'" In other words, "You've got this need, right? Why don't you do something to meet your need, even if it's a little outside of what God wants you to do?"
Jesus answered that call for surrender with a cannon shot. "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone.'" Jesus answers the heavy artillery of hell with a statement from the Word of God; the heavier artillery of heaven. Now, Satan then takes Jesus to a mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world. He offers them to Jesus, "If you worship me, it will all be yours." In other words, "Just bow down. No cross to go to. You could have it all. It could be easy, without all the pain." Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'" Again the temptation to surrender is answered with a cannonball of God's Word.
It could be that the enemy is working overtime right now to deceive you into some moral or spiritual compromise, retreat, surrender. He's saying something like, "Things are dark, and I don't know that they're ever going to change." He's wanting to discourage you. Or maybe he's trying to say, "You know, you could really benefit from just a little compromise; just giving in a little to this temptation. It's wrong, but it might help you right now. Surrender to temptation." Maybe your enemy's saying, "Oh listen, there's no hope for this marriage, man. Surrender to divorce." "There's no hope of an answer. Surrender to taking charge of things yourself. Surrender to self-solutions or giving up." Or, "Hey, if you take a stand for Jesus, it's going to cost you too much, man. You'd better surrender to backing down on this Jesus thing."
As Colonel Travis so dramatically demonstrated at the Alamo, when the enemy calls for surrender, you cannot answer that passively. You have to answer aggressively - boldly. Go to God's words about that issue in the Bible and you use God's own words "like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces..." it says in the Bible, or like a cannonball.
Stand on God's truths. Stand in God's strength, in Jesus' name. He sent me to tell you to take your stand right now. And declare it boldly, "The flag of Jesus still flies proudly from these walls. I shall never surrender or retreat!"
