Max Lucado Daily: Heaven Will Be Sin Free
What prevents us from being rightly related to God? It is sin! And since heaven promises a right relationship with God, what's missing in heaven? You got it-Sin. Heaven will be sin-free. Both death and sin will be things of the past.
Can you imagine a world minus sin? Have you done anything recently because of sin? At the very least, you've complained. You've worried. You've grumbled. Hoarded when you should have shared. Second-guessed and covered up. But you won't do that in heaven. Sin has sired a thousand heartaches and broken a million promises. Your addiction can be traced back to sin. Your mistrust can be traced back to sin. Bigotry, robbery, adultery-all because of sin.
But in heaven, all of this will end. So. . .can you imagine a world without sin? If so, you can imagine heaven!
From When Christ Comes
Psalm 98
A psalm.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Read: Matthew 6:25-34
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Footnotes:
6:33 Some manuscripts do not include of God.
INSIGHT:
The Sermon on the Mount is all about the life of those who are part of God’s kingdom. One of the characteristics of our heavenly Father is that He is our great provider—a fact that Jesus emphasizes in today’s text. He describes the extent to which the Father goes to provide for His children. But what is most important is that this provision is not in response to our obedience or because we deserve it—it is because of our value to God (Matt. 6:26).
Deeply Loved
By Randy Kilgore
Your heavenly Father feeds [the birds of the air]. Are you not much more valuable than they? Matthew 6:26
Years ago I had an office in Boston that looked out on the Granary Burying Ground where many prominent American heroes are buried. There one can find the gravestones for John Hancock and Samuel Adams, two signers of the Declaration of Independence, and just a few feet beyond that is Paul Revere’s marker.
But no one really knows where in this burial ground each body is buried because the stones have been moved many times—sometimes to make the grounds more picturesque and other times so lawn mowers could fit between them. And while the Granary features approximately 2,300 markers, closer to 5,000 people are buried there! Even in death, it seems, some people are not fully known.
There may be times when we feel as if we are like those unmarked residents of the Granary, unknown and unseen. Loneliness can make us feel unseen by others—and maybe even by God. But we must remind ourselves that even though we may feel forgotten by our Creator God, we are not. God not only made us in His image (Gen. 1:26-27), but He also values each of us individually and sent His Son to save us (John 3:16).
Even in our darkest hours, we can rest in the knowledge we are never alone, for our loving God is with us.
Thank You, Lord, that You never leave me alone and that You know all about me. Make me aware of Your presence so I may share that comfort with others who are feeling alone too.
We are important because God loves us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
The Master Will Judge
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ… —2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
No Pit Stops - #7613
For several years, we had a Latin American outreach base in Mexico where our Latin American version of a youth broadcast was recorded. My limited Spanish didn't get me very far in Mexico. I mean, how much meaningful communication can you have when all you know are words like grande and mucho? "You look grande today." Well, the Director of our Latin American Ministry at the time was a wonderful translator and he was my best hope of communicating while I was there. Needless to say, I always lit up when someone was fluent in English there. I could converse unassisted!
In the course of talking with one bilingual, Mexican gentleman, I learned he was involved with automobile racing in that country, sort of the Mexican NASCAR. When I asked him if they have anything like America's Indianapolis 500, he told me they didn't do long distance races like that. They can't. Then I asked him about the pressure of repairing a race car during one of those pit stops, and he informed me that they don't have pit stops. They don't stop. See, they can't go as far as cars that do.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Pit Stops."
Cars cannot run indefinitely without stopping to be serviced. Hello! Neither can people. So God builds in pit stops. Our word for today from the Word of God, the familiar words of Psalm 23:1, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." Notice what kind of things our Shepherd leads us to. "He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul."
God leads us along paths where we will lie down. You have to stop, of course, to lie down. And the reason for stopping is to restore your soul. Sounds remarkably like cars in long, demanding races. They occasionally leave the race for some servicing – for a pit stop. It's interesting that in Mexico, where they apparently don't stop, they can't finish a long-distance race. Well, neither can you. That's how God created you.
Maybe you're really caught up in your race right now, and God's Sabbath principle is out the window. He has built pit stops into our creation. But you've been running so hard and so fast lately, that you keep saying, "I can't stop now. I'll pull over later. I've got to keep driving." And the longer you go without rest, the crankier you become, more impatient, more prone to errors in judgment, less creative, more mechanical, and you're less caring. You weren't made to run like this. Eventually, you'll burn up or burn out if you keep driving without stopping.
If you're consistently running without stopping, you are running right past your Shepherd, whose will for you includes regular rest and regular restoring. There's nothing noble about running yourself to death. In fact, there's something very wrong with it. If you don't choose to lie down, the Shepherd may literally "make" you lie down. If you don't get your Sabbaths, maybe one day they will come and get you. And you'll be able to run a much longer race if you take time for pit stops. Without those stops, you may be able to run real hard, but not nearly as long as those who stop.
Maybe you're addicted to your own adrenaline right now, to your own momentum. You need to stop for God's love; for God's servicing. You need regular refills of time with Him, of His perspective on what you're doing, of His refocusing you on the people you love, and of His wonderful restoring. But He won't chase you around the track with an oil can. No, He'll service you when you stop.
It's time to, as God commanded us, "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). In your day, in your week, in your month, take time for a pit stop. It's stopping that ultimately keeps you running.