Max Lucado Daily: He Has Ample Space
Some of the saddest words on earth are: We don't have room for you!
Sorry, I don't have room for you on the team.
I don't have room for you in my heart.
We don't have room for your type in here.
Jesus was still in Mary's womb when the innkeeper said, We don't have room for you. When the religious leaders accused him of blasphemy saying, We don't have room for a self-proclaimed Messiah! Even today Jesus goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter. But more often than not he hears the words of the Bethlehem innkeeper…. sorry, too crowded. I don't have room for you.
But Jesus says I have ample space for you! His words in John 14:2, "Trust in me. In my Father's house are many rooms." We make room for him in our hearts, and he makes room for us in his house!
From When Christ Comes
Psalm 67
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us—[b]
2 so that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples with equity
and guide the nations of the earth.
5 May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.
6 The land yields its harvest;
God, our God, blesses us.
7 May God bless us still,
so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.
Footnotes:
Psalm 67:1 In Hebrew texts 67:1-7 is numbered 67:2-8.
Psalm 67:1 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 4.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 03, 2016
Read: Psalm 145:1-13
A psalm of praise of David.
I will exalt you, my God and King,
and praise your name forever and ever.
2 I will praise you every day;
yes, I will praise you forever.
3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
No one can measure his greatness.
4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
let them proclaim your power.
5 I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor
and your wonderful miracles.
6 Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
I will proclaim your greatness.
7 Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;
they will sing with joy about your righteousness.
8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 The Lord is good to everyone.
He showers compassion on all his creation.
10 All of your works will thank you, Lord,
and your faithful followers will praise you.
11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom;
they will give examples of your power.
12 They will tell about your mighty deeds
and about the majesty and glory of your reign.
13 For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
You rule throughout all generations.
The Lord always keeps his promises;
he is gracious in all he does.[b]
Footnotes:
145 This psalm is a Hebrew acrostic poem; each verse (including 13b) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
145:13 As in Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek and Syriac versions; the Masoretic Text lacks the final two lines of this verse.
INSIGHT:
Psalm 145 is the last psalm in the final collection of psalms penned by David (Pss. 138–145). It celebrates God as the sovereign King (vv. 1-3, 10–13) and speaks of His majesty, generosity, and greatness—His “mighty acts,” “awesome works,” and “great deeds” (vv. 4–6). David also highlights God’s goodness: He is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love”; “trustworthy in all he promises”; and “righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does” (vv. 7,8,13,17).
Grandma’s Recipe
By Poh Fang Chia
Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you. Deuteronomy 32:7
Many families have a secret recipe, a special way of cooking a dish that makes it especially savory. For us Hakkas (my Chinese ethnic group), we have a traditional dish called abacus beads, named for its beadlike appearance. Really, you have to try it!
Of course Grandma had the best recipe. Each Chinese New Year at the family reunion dinner we would tell ourselves, “We should really learn how to cook this.” But we never got around to asking Grandma. Now she is no longer with us, and her secret recipe is gone with her.
God has designed us to enjoy family and community and to benefit from each other.
We miss Grandma, and it’s sad to lose her recipe. It would be far more tragic if we were to fail to preserve the legacy of faith entrusted to us. God intends that every generation share with the next generation about the mighty acts of God. “One generation commends [God’s] works to another,” said the psalmist (Ps. 145:4), echoing Moses’ earlier instructions to “remember the days of old . . . . Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you” (Deut. 32:7).
As we share our stories of how we received salvation and the ways the Lord has helped us face challenges, we encourage each other and honor Him. He designed us to enjoy family and community and to benefit from each other.
Is there someone from a different age group with whom you can share your faith journey? How about asking someone from an older generation to share their story with you. What might you learn?
Share your story at ourdailybread.org/story. While there check out stories of God at work in lives of people around the world.
What we teach our children today will influence tomorrow’s world.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 03, 2016
His Commission to Us
Feed My sheep. —John 21:17
This is love in the making. The love of God is not created— it is His nature. When we receive the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, He unites us with God so that His love is demonstrated in us. The goal of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not just to unite us with God, but to do it in such a way that we will be one with the Father in exactly the same way Jesus was. And what kind of oneness did Jesus Christ have with the Father? He had such a oneness with the Father that He was obedient when His Father sent Him down here to be poured out for us. And He says to us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).
Peter now realizes that he does love Him, due to the revelation that came with the Lord’s piercing question. The Lord’s next point is— “Pour yourself out. Don’t testify about how much you love Me and don’t talk about the wonderful revelation you have had, just ‘Feed My sheep.’ ” Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions— I have to feed His sheep. We will not be delivered or released from His commission to us. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings. That will only serve to revile and abuse the true love of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 03, 2016
United We Stand - #7604
Well, it was a sight many of us never expected to see in our lifetime. And, man, in the times in which we live how we'd love to see something like it again, except for what caused it. Here were the members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats standing together, singing "God Bless America" with all their hearts. What a moment!
Of course you know what it took. It took the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, to bring them together like that. I remember seeing similar scenes of the leaders of both parties emerging from White House meetings with the President, speaking in one voice basically; the combined Senate and House responding in total unity to the President's address to Congress. An unprecedented bipartisanship that left most of us totally amazed. Suddenly, it seemed as if our leaders had discovered an identity that transcended Republican or Democrat. Suddenly, we were all just Americans.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "United We Stand."
The followers of Jesus Christ have something to learn from what happened among America's national leaders those years ago after the terrorist attacks. Indeed, as a nation, as the Church of Jesus Christ, "united we stand". I know you remember the rest of that, right? "Divided we fall."
America's leaders were united by a common enemy who took lives indiscriminately. We have such an enemy – the one the Bible calls the "thief" who "comes to steal, to kill, and destroy" (John 10:10) – Satan himself. America's leaders were united by the recognition that suddenly they had a war to win. The followers of Jesus are faced with no less a challenge – to win a war against our enemy and save the lives he's determined to take with him to hell.
The common enemy and the war to win caused people in leadership to suddenly realize they had an identity higher than the partisan labels that usually defined them. They had a transcendent identity called "American". How then can we who know Christ, whose cause has stakes that are eternal; how can we continue to be divided by our denominational and theological and even racial labels? We, of all people, have a transcendent identity – we're Christians! We're followers of Jesus! We've been to the same cross and the same empty tomb to have our sins forgiven, we worship the same Christ, and we'll be together in the same heaven. How can we allow ourselves to be divided? Yes, we must be uncompromising with God's Word, but we've got to recognize a spiritual brother and sister and stand with them, not against them.
Philippians 1:27, our word for today from the Word of God, challenges us to "conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." What kind of living is that? What kind of living brings credit to the Good News about Jesus? Here we go: "Stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel." Honestly now, does that describe how God's people are working where you live? Even in your own church or in your ministry? Standing firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel? If not, why not? Have we allowed our distinctives, our denomination, our pride, our competitiveness, our turf to keep us from joining hands to rescue the dying people all around us? That's unworthy of the Gospel!
Let's not waste any more bullets shooting at our own army. Let's remember that turf doesn't matter when people are dying; that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. The enemy is too powerful, the hour is too late, and the stakes are just too high for us to continue to work in our own separate worlds. United, the army of Christ is unstoppable. Divided, we're just helping our enemy. United we stand!
