Max Lucado Daily: What Makes the Difference?
I once shared a class with a girl who got engaged. I don't remember much about the class except the hour was early and the teacher was dull. I don't even remember the girl's name. I do remember that she didn't stand out in the crowd. She was shy and not very confident.
One day, however, her hair changed and her outfit changed. Even her voice changed. She spoke with confidence. What made the difference? Simple. A young man she loved looked her squarely in the eye and said, "Come and spend forever with me." He proposed to her. His love for her convinced her she was worth loving.
God's love can do the same. It can change us! The Bible says, "God has loved you with an everlasting love; He has drawn you with loving-kindness" (Jeremiah 31:3).
Jesus can live without us-but He doesn't want to!
From When Christ Comes
Psalm 114
When Israel came out of Egypt,
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Read: Judges 7:1-8
Gideon Defeats the Midianites
So Jerub-baal (that is, Gideon) and his army got up early and went as far as the spring of Harod. The armies of Midian were camped north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength. 3 Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain[a] and go home.’” So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight.
4 But the Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring, and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not.” 5 When Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him, “Divide the men into two groups. In one group put all those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In the other group put all those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream.” 6 Only 300 of the men drank from their hands. All the others got down on their knees and drank with their mouths in the stream.
7 The Lord told Gideon, “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home.” 8 So Gideon collected the provisions and rams’ horns of the other warriors and sent them home. But he kept the 300 men with him.
The Midianite camp was in the valley just below Gideon.
Footnotes:
7:3 Hebrew may leave Mount Gilead. The identity of Mount Gilead is uncertain in this context. It is perhaps used here as another name for Mount Gilboa.
INSIGHT:
Gideon’s life clearly illustrates God’s strength and man’s frailty. God used Gideon to accomplish a great military victory and through him brought 40 years of peace to Israel (Judg. 6–7). But this story also teaches us about the danger of pride. The circumstances surrounding Israel’s victory over Midian clearly show that God, not Gideon, was responsible for Israel’s success. Yet Gideon’s pride led him to accept gold and to erect a monument in his own honor that would later become an object of worship and a snare to him and his family (8:22–27).
God of My Strength
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
I will strengthen you and help you. Isaiah 41:10
No one could have mistaken the ancient Babylonian soldiers for gentlemen. They were ruthless, resilient, and vicious, and they attacked other nations the way an eagle overtakes its prey. Not only were they powerful, they were prideful as well. They practically worshiped their own combat abilities. In fact, the Bible says that their “strength [was] their god” (Hab. 1:11).
God did not want this kind of self-reliance to infect Israel’s forces as they prepared to battle the Midianites. So He told Gideon, Israel’s army commander, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me’ ” (Judg. 7:2). As a result, Gideon discharged anyone who was fearful. Twenty-two thousand men hightailed it home, while 10,000 fighters stayed. God continued to downsize the army until only 300 men remained (vv. 3-7).
I will strengthen you and help you. (Isaiah 41:10)
Having fewer troops meant that Israel was dramatically outnumbered—their enemies, who populated a nearby valley, were as “thick as locusts” (v. 12). Despite this, God gave Gideon’s forces victory.
At times, God may allow our resources to dwindle so that we rely on His strength to keep going. Our needs showcase His power, but He is the One who says, “I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isa. 41:10).
Dear God, I am thankful for Your strength. You carry me when I am weak. Help me to give You the credit for every victory in life.
God wants us to depend on His strength, not our own.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Our Lord’s Surprise Visits
You also be ready… —Luke 12:40
A Christian worker’s greatest need is a readiness to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience has been. This battle is not against sin, difficulties, or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in our service to Jesus Christ that we are not ready to face Jesus Himself at every turn. The greatest need is not facing our beliefs or doctrines, or even facing the question of whether or not we are of any use to Him, but the need is to face Him.
Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical situations. The only way a servant can remain true to God is to be ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. This readiness will not be brought about by service, but through intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This sense of expectation will give our life the attitude of childlike wonder He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious. In other words, we must stop using religion as if it were some kind of a lofty lifestyle— we must be spiritually real.
If you are avoiding the call of the religious thinking of today’s world, and instead are “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2), setting your heart on what He wants, and thinking His thoughts, you will be considered impractical and a daydreamer. But when He suddenly appears in the work of the heat of the day, you will be the only one who is ready. You should trust no one, and even ignore the finest saint on earth if he blocks your sight of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Conformed to His Image, 354 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Hope for Your Unanswered Prayer - #7622
Denise moved to New Jersey to join our ministry team from Florida. Hello, climate shock! Now she grew up in Detroit, so winter wasn't exactly a new idea to her. But her last years in Florida showed her there was another way to live, like not having winter. It was in the early days of April when she came into a team meeting with this big smile on her face because of something she had seen over the weekend – a robin.
You're probably saying, "Didn't I see him in Batman." Not that kind! The bird; the kind that you see when spring is coming! She told us, "I really don't like winter. I never have. But all those years in those winters in Michigan, I looked for one great sign of hope that winter was almost over – that first robin!" Well, she's back to winters again, and that old excitement about what that first robin means!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope for Your Unanswered Prayer."
Maybe the word "winter" could describe what you've been experiencing lately, no matter what the thermometer says. It's been a cold time, a long time, a slowed down time, a dark, hard time. You might be encouraged by what happened to the prophet Elijah in our word for today from the Word of God which is in 1 Kings 18. For him, it wasn't a winter, it was a drought. For three years the land of Israel had been under the judgment of God and there had not been a drop of rain.
It was just after Elijah's incredible showdown with 450 false prophets. "And Elijah said to King Ahab, 'Go eat and drink for there is the sound of a heavy rain.' So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah...bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees." He was talking to God about sending rain and the sky was cloudless. It had been cloudless for three years.
"'Go and look toward the sea,' he told his servant and he went up and looked 'There is nothing there,' he said." Maybe like you, Elijah is looking for an answer that so far isn't coming. But don't give up. "Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back.' The seventh time the servant reported, 'A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea.'" Not much, but a small sign. Like Denise's robin. It's not exactly 60 and 70 degree days but it's a small sign that they're going to come.
"So Elijah said, 'Go and tell Ahab, Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.'" Now, that's a statement of faith based on only a little evidence of a change. It sure didn't look like there was any rush to beat a rainstorm. But, like so many who received a miracle in the Bible, you start to live as if the miracle is coming before it does. God loves to respond to that kind of faith.
The Bible says, "Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off." Or, to put it in the context of your winter, it may only be one robin, but it's time to start living like God's spring is coming! He wants to encourage you today. Don't give up! Don't retreat! Don't stop believing that He is going to do something amazing.
God will often reward your faith with an early sign of what He is eventually going to do. So don't focus on the drought, focus on that one small cloud that comes before the rainstorm. Don't focus on the winter; focus on that one small robin that encourages you that spring will ultimately replace this long, cold season.
Look for the early signs of God's working. It's not the whole spring yet, but it's His encouragement to you that it is not going to be cold forever!