Max Lucado Daily: The Real Deal
Susie's most treasured possession was a string of fake pearls given to her by her father. As he put her to bed one evening after he returned from a lengthy trip, he asked this question: "Do you love me?" "Yes, daddy. I love you more than anything," she replied. He paused. "More than the pearls? Would you give me your pearls?" "Oh daddy," she replied. "I couldn't do that. I love my pearls!" But the next day she went to see him. "Daddy, I love you more than these. Here you take them." He said, "I brought you a gift from my trip." She opened the small flat box and gasped. Pearls…genuine pearls!
Do you suppose your Father wants to give you some as well? He offers authentic love. His devotion is the real deal. He will give you the genuine when you surrender the imitation!
From A Love Worth Giving
Galatians 2
The Apostles Accept Paul
Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. 2 I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. 3 And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.[a]
4 Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there—false ones, really[b]—who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations. 5 But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you.
6 And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.) 7 Instead, they saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews. 8 For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.
9 In fact, James, Peter,[c] and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews. 10 Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.
Paul Confronts Peter
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. 16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”[d]
17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ.[e] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Footnotes:
2:3 Greek a Greek.
2:4 Greek some false brothers.
2:9 Greek Cephas; also in 2:11, 14.
2:16 Some translators hold that the quotation extends through verse 14; others through verse 16; and still others through verse 21.
2:20 Some English translations put this sentence in verse 19.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, February 05, 2016
Read: 1 Kings 12:1-15
The Northern Tribes Revolt
Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had gathered to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of this, he returned from Egypt,[a] for he had fled to Egypt to escape from King Solomon. 3 The leaders of Israel summoned him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel went to speak with Rehoboam. 4 “Your father was a hard master,” they said. “Lighten the harsh labor demands and heavy taxes that your father imposed on us. Then we will be your loyal subjects.”
5 Rehoboam replied, “Give me three days to think this over. Then come back for my answer.” So the people went away.
6 Then King Rehoboam discussed the matter with the older men who had counseled his father, Solomon. “What is your advice?” he asked. “How should I answer these people?”
7 The older counselors replied, “If you are willing to be a servant to these people today and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your loyal subjects.”
8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and were now his advisers. 9 “What is your advice?” he asked them. “How should I answer these people who want me to lighten the burdens imposed by my father?”
10 The young men replied, “This is what you should tell those complainers who want a lighter burden: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! 11 Yes, my father laid heavy burdens on you, but I’m going to make them even heavier! My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions!’”
12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to hear Rehoboam’s decision, just as the king had ordered. 13 But Rehoboam spoke harshly to the people, for he rejected the advice of the older counselors 14 and followed the counsel of his younger advisers. He told the people, “My father laid heavy burdens on you, but I’m going to make them even heavier! My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions!”
15 So the king paid no attention to the people. This turn of events was the will of the Lord, for it fulfilled the Lord’s message to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh.
Footnotes:
12:2 As in Greek version and Latin Vulgate (see also 2 Chr 10:2); Hebrew reads he lived in Egypt.
A Serving Leader
By Lawrence Darmani
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. Matthew 20:26
In traditional African societies, leadership succession is a serious decision. After a king’s demise, great care is taken selecting the next ruler. Besides being from a royal family, the successor must be strong, fearless, and sensible. Candidates are questioned to determine if they will serve the people or rule with a heavy hand. The king’s successor needs to be someone who leads but also serves.
Even though Solomon made his own bad choices, he worried over his successor. “Who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill” (Eccl. 2:19). His son Rehoboam was that successor. He demonstrated a lack of sound judgment and ended up fulfilling his father’s worst fear.
We need God's wisdom for the humility to serve rather than be served.
When the people requested more humane working conditions, it was an opportunity for Rehoboam to show servant leadership. “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them . . . ,” the elders advised, “they will always be your servants” (1 Kings 12:7). But he rejected their counsel. Rehoboam failed to seek God. His harsh response to the people divided the kingdom and accelerated the spiritual decline of God’s people (12:14-19).
In the family, the workplace, at church, or in our neighborhood—we need His wisdom for the humility to serve rather than be served.
Dear Lord, please give me a humble servant’s heart. Help me to lead and follow with humility and compassion.
A good leader is a good servant.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, February 05, 2016
Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (1)
If I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. —Philippians 2:17
Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry and faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve Him. I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying, ‘Well done.’ ”
It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a “doormat” under other people’s feet. God’s purpose may be to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased…” (Philippians 4:12). Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket— to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted— not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, February 05, 2016
Three Anchors in a World of Terror - #7585
It was an awful night in Paris. Many of us watched the heartbreaking scenes from those awful terror attacks in Paris, and as I watched it, my mind flashed back some 22 years. The morning after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, I was flying from New York to speak in another city. To my surprise, we were greeted by a TV crew, asking, "How are New Yorkers feeling after this attack?" Then they came to me. Let's see, first word that came to my mind, "Vulnerable." That was it. We all suddenly felt very vulnerable.
Fast forward to now, and put an exponent next to that "vulnerable." Not just in one city, but around the world. Terror has metastasized. The American President says, "The sky has darkened." The Pope says we are now in "a piecemeal World War III." Vulnerable isn't just a feeling. It is a reality.
For example, our almost total dependence on vulnerable cyber technology without which we would be paralyzed and our interconnectedness with a "house of cards" world economy. And hackers, identity thieves; terrorists moving faster than the systems devised to stop them. We are vulnerable. There's a lot of fear, and with reason.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Three Anchors in a World of Terror."
Yes, there's a lot of fear, but there's also safe harbor. Not in the events we can see. But in the "something bigger" – the larger tapestry of which all our uncertainties are threads. The threads bring fear. The tapestry spawns faith. It's a faith that's powerfully revealed in the time-tested wisdom of the Bible and rooted in a perspective that sees the panoramic backdrop for all the fear factors around us.
That perspective is called in a word, "eternity." As one Bible writer says in our word for today from the Word of God, in 2 Corinthians 4:18, "We don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen...the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever" (NLT). See, things look different through eternity glasses.
From the observation deck of "forever," we can see three lights in this darkening sky around us. Number one, there is hope. Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid...In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!" (John 14:28; 16:33).
No matter how wild our roller coaster ride is, our car is anchored to a track. That track is the larger plan of an unstoppable God, revealed in Biblical prophecies of where this all goes. Jesus said, "Nation will rise against nation...the nations will be in turmoil...people will be terrified. But then, everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke 21).
Terror. Turmoil. Then the triumph of Jesus' return. No leader, no army, and no terrorist is going to write that final chapter. Jesus will. Whatever tonight's news, as it says in 1 Chronicles 16:31, "the Lord reigns!" Are things spinning out of control? Ours? Yes. His? Never!
Number two, there is justice. Whether or not wrongdoers are "brought to justice" on earth, God's greater justice is inescapable. The Bible says, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). And, "will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). Time will not right all wrongs, but eternity will.
Thirdly, there is security. In tornado country, when the dark sky turns deadly, people head for their "safe room." I know where my safe room is in a menacing world. Listen to Romans chapter 8, "Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
There is an unshakeable anchor for your soul. It is the unloseable love of Jesus Christ; love proven by His life sacrificed for your sin on a cross and guaranteed by His victory over death at His empty tomb. He's ready to walk into your life today, and we are ready to help you begin that relationship with Him.
Just go to our website. Remember this – AnewStory.com. Would you check it out as soon as you can today? And learn about a love. Learn about a security that is disaster-proof, that is terror-proof, and that is death-proof because it is guaranteed by the death-beater Jesus Christ.