Max Lucado Daily: A Valentine for My Daughters
The whirlwind of adolescent doubts and pressure was making regular runs through our house. So on Valentine's Day, 1997, I wrote the following for each of my daughters:
I have a special gift for you. My gift is warmth at night and sunlit afternoons, chuckles and giggles and happy Saturdays. Is there a store which sells laughter? A catalog that offers kisses? No. Such a treasure can't be bought. But it can be given. Your Valentine's Day gift is a promise, a promise that I will always love your mother. With God as my helper, I will never leave her. You'll never come home to find me gone. You'll never wake up and find that I have run away. You'll always have two parents. I will love your mother. I will honor your mother. I will cherish your mother. That is my promise. That is my gift.
Love dad!
From A Love Worth Giving
2 Kings 19
Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold
When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’”
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,[a] was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 19 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:
“‘Virgin Daughter Zion
despises you and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head as you flee.
22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
“With my many chariots
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts,
the finest of its forests.
24 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
25 “‘Have you not heard?
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.
26 Their people, drained of power,
are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched before it grows up.
27 “‘But I know where you are
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
28 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.’
29 “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:
“This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah
will take root below and bear fruit above.
31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
“The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
32 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
“‘He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
34 I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’”
35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
Footnotes:
2 Kings 19:9 That is, the upper Nile region
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, February 12, 2016
Read: John 8:39-47
“Our father is Abraham!” they declared.
“No,” Jesus replied, “for if you were really the children of Abraham, you would follow his example.[a] 40 Instead, you are trying to kill me because I told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing. 41 No, you are imitating your real father.”
They replied, “We aren’t illegitimate children! God himself is our true Father.”
42 Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. 43 Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! 44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me! 46 Which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin? And since I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.”
Footnotes:
8:39 Some manuscripts read if you are really the children of Abraham, follow his example.
INSIGHT:
John 8 is a chapter filled with conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel. In verses 1–11 the conflict is based on whether a woman caught in sin should be publicly executed or shown compassion. In verses 12–20 the point of friction focuses on whether Jesus is who He claims to be: the “Light of the world” and the Son of God. The religious leaders dispute Jesus’s claim that God is His Father, even accusing Him of being born illegitimately (v. 41). When Jesus says that He existed before Abraham was born (vv. 56–58), His antagonists respond by attempting to stone Him to death.
Undigested Knowledge
By Tim Gustafson
If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. John 8:31
In his book on language, British diplomat Lancelot Oliphant (1881–1965) observed that many students give correct answers on tests but fail to put those lessons into practice. “Such undigested knowledge is of little use,” declared Oliphant.
Author Barnabas Piper noticed a parallel in his own life: “I thought I was close to God because I knew all the answers,” he said, “but I had fooled myself into thinking that was the same as relationship with Jesus.”
Faith is not accepting the fact of God but receiving the life of God.
At the temple one day, Jesus encountered people who thought they had all the right answers. They were proudly proclaiming their status as Abraham’s descendants yet refused to believe in God’s Son.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did” (John 8:39). And what was that? Abraham “believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). Still, Jesus’ hearers refused to believe. “The only Father we have is God himself,” they said (John 8:41). Jesus replied, “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God” (v. 47).
Piper recalls how things “fell apart” for him before he “encountered God’s grace and the person of Jesus in a profound way.” When we allow God’s truth to transform our lives, we gain much more than the right answer. We introduce the world to Jesus.
Father, thank You that You receive anyone who turns to You in faith.
Faith is not accepting the fact of God but of receiving the life of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, February 12, 2016
Are You Listening to God?
They said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." —Exodus 20:19
We don’t consciously and deliberately disobey God— we simply don’t listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them— not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Once we realize we have constantly been showing disrespect to God, we will be filled with shame and humiliation for ignoring Him.
“You speak with us,…but let not God speak with us….” We show how little love we have for God by preferring to listen to His servants rather than to Him. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we don’t want God Himself to speak to us. Why are we so terrified for God to speak to us? It is because we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey. But if it is simply one of God’s servants speaking to us, we feel obedience is optional, not imperative. We respond by saying, “Well, that’s only your own idea, even though I don’t deny that what you said is probably God’s truth.”
Am I constantly humiliating God by ignoring Him, while He lovingly continues to treat me as His child? Once I finally do hear Him, the humiliation I have heaped on Him returns to me. My response then becomes, “Lord, why was I so insensitive and obstinate?” This is always the result once we hear God. But our real delight in finally hearing Him is tempered with the shame we feel for having taken so long to do so.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves. The Place of Help, 1051 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, February 12, 2016
The Spiritual Cure You Can Die From - #7590
When my friends tell me they have a headache, they don't always get a lot of sympathy. I usually just say, "You know, pain always attacks at the weakest point." They really appreciate that! That helps. Well, actually, we all have our favorite headache remedy – one or two of this pill or that and we wait for the relief as those pills race through our system. I know they do. I saw it on a commercial once.
Do you remember the twisted act of individual terrorism that happened in 1982 when relief was turned into tragedy? Someone managed to put poison in some pain relief capsules and there were a series of sudden deaths. The victims had taken this brand of pain reliever. I remember reading about a flight attendant in particular who arrived home after a trip with a serious headache. She reached for a couple pain relief capsules. I'm sure she thought they would make her feel better soon. Instead, she died from them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Spiritual Cure You Can Die From."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 14:12. It is one of the most sobering, unsettling statements in the Bible. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." God's trying to warn us here that we can be on a spiritual road that feels right, that we really believe will give us what we've been hoping for, but it will lead us to death.
In 1997, just before Good Friday, America was stunned by the mass suicide of 39 members of the "Heaven's Gate" cult. Then we saw some of the video testimonials made by those people just before they took their own lives. They talked about how at peace they were, how happy to be taking this next step – suicide. And we learned that these were not some religious freaks; they were bright, competent people. They believed very sincerely that they were graduating to something better.
But listen to Jesus, the Son of God. He says, "I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved" (John 10:9). And it is Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." If you're counting on anything or anyone other than Jesus to get you to heaven, you're not going to make it. Sincerity doesn't make what you believe in right. That flight attendant sincerely believed that pain reliever would help her. Peaceful feelings don't validate what you're counting on either. The people who died from those poisoned capsules were expecting relief. Instead they died.
Our hearts are incurably spiritual. We need a spiritual answer, and we know it. We're looking for something bigger than ourselves, something that can give us significance, that can conquer the darkness inside of us; that can take us to something better someday. Ultimately, we are looking for a savior who can make us what we could never otherwise be and take us to a heaven we could never otherwise go to.
And there is only one Savior. There's only one person who died the death penalty for the sinning you and I have done, and that is Jesus Christ on the cross. And no belief, no religion, even if it's all about Jesus, can get you to heaven when you die. Only the Savior can do that. You may be on a beautiful spiritual road that looks right and feels right. But like pain relievers that contained poison it may lead you to death.
But Jesus is reaching out to you right now, "the way, the truth, and the life" man. He's urging you to put all your faith in Him; to make the Savior your Savior. Isn't this the day to do that? Why would you risk another day without Him? Today you can say, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
The information you need to be sure you belong to Him is right at our website. Just go to ANewStory.com. Can you remember that? Let your new story begin today. The days that are B.C. (before Christ) in your life end today. And days living with Jesus all the way into eternity can begin right now right where you are.
Jesus died so you don't have to. Don't risk depending on a remedy that cannot cure sin, because only the Savior can do that. He is what your heart's been longing for all this time.