Max Lucado Daily: Let God Teach You
Jesus invites, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest… let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29).
Do yourself a favor. Underscore, underline, and accept this invitation. Jesus says, Let me teach you. . . how to handle long Mondays, and cranky in-laws. Let me teach you why people fight, and death comes, and forgiveness counts.
We need answers. Jesus offers them. But can we trust him? There's only one way to know. Seek him out. Lift up your eyes, set your sights on Jesus. No passing glances or occasional glimpses. Search the crowded streets and shadow-casting roofs until you spot his face, then set your sights on him. You'll find the only One and Only!
From: 3:16
Psalm 124
A song of ascents. Of David.
If the Lord had not been on our side—
let Israel say—
2 if the Lord had not been on our side
when people attacked us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger flared against us;
4 the flood would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us,
5 the raging waters
would have swept us away.
6 Praise be to the Lord,
who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird
from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Read: Psalm 118:19-29
Open for me the gates where the righteous enter,
and I will go in and thank the Lord.
20 These gates lead to the presence of the Lord,
and the godly enter there.
21 I thank you for answering my prayer
and giving me victory!
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.
23 This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is wonderful to see.
24 This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Please, Lord, please save us.
Please, Lord, please give us success.
26 Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27 The Lord is God, shining upon us.
Take the sacrifice and bind it with cords on the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise you!
You are my God, and I will exalt you!
29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
INSIGHT:
The unnamed psalmist of Psalm 118 tells of God’s rescue in response to his cry for help (vv. 5–16). Because of the rescue theme of this psalm, the Jews often sang it after their Passover meal, which commemorated their deliverance from Egyptian slavery. It is possible that Jesus and His disciples sang this thanksgiving song after the Last Supper (Matt. 26:30). Psalm 118:22 is quoted or alluded to in Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, Ephesians 2:20–22, and 1 Peter 2:7. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds shouted the words of Psalm 118:25–26, proclaiming Jesus as their Messiah and Deliverer (Matt. 21:9). Sim Kay Tee
This Is the Day
By David McCasland
This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. —nkjv Psalm 118:24
In 1940, Dr. Virginia Connally, age 27, braved opposition and criticism to become the first female physician in Abilene, Texas. A few months before her 100th birthday in 2012, the Texas Medical Association presented her with its Distinguished Service Award, Texas’ highest physician honor. Between those two landmark events, Dr. Connally has enthusiastically embraced a passion for spreading the gospel around the world through her many medical mission trips while living a life of service to God and to others—one day at a time.
Dr. Connally’s pastor, Phil Christopher, said, “Every day for her is a gift.” He recalled a letter in which she wrote, “Every tour, trip, effort, I wonder if this will be my last and ultimate? Only God knows. And this is enough.”
God made today. Let’s celebrate it!
The psalmist wrote, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24 nkjv). So often we focus on the disappointments of yesterday or the uncertainties of tomorrow and miss God’s matchless gift to us: Today!
Dr. Connally said of her journey with Christ, “As you live a life of faith, you’re not looking for the results. I was just doing the things that God planted in my life and heart.”
God made today. Let’s celebrate it and make the most of every opportunity to serve others in His name.
Lord, thank You for today. May I embrace it as Your gift, celebrate Your faithfulness, and live this day fully for You.
Welcome each day as a gift from God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Inner Invincibility
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me… —Matthew 11:29
“Whom the Lord loves He chastens…” (Hebrews 12:6). How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us to the point where we can have fellowship with Him, only to hear us moan and groan, saying, “Oh Lord, just let me be like other people!” Jesus is asking us to get beside Him and take one end of the yoke, so that we can pull together. That’s why Jesus says to us, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Are you closely identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God when you feel the pressure of His hand upon you.
“…to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29). God comes and takes us out of our emotionalism, and then our complaining turns into a hymn of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and to learn from Him.
“…the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Where do the saints get their joy? If we did not know some Christians well, we might think from just observing them that they have no burdens at all to bear. But we must lift the veil from our eyes. The fact that the peace, light, and joy of God is in them is proof that a burden is there as well. The burden that God places on us squeezes the grapes in our lives and produces the wine, but most of us see only the wine and not the burden. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God living within the human spirit; it creates an inner invincibility.
If your life is producing only a whine, instead of the wine, then ruthlessly kick it out. It is definitely a crime for a Christian to be weak in God’s strength.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 14, 2016
The Cats That Never Pounced - #7634
I was out of the country, and my wife was visiting her father, along with our daughter and son-in-law. My wife convinced her Dad to hike with them back into the woods to see the spring where they used to go to get water when she was a little girl. Eventually, they came upon a scene that was imprinted on her memory like a photograph – that spring gushing from the rocks, just beneath a cave above it.
They spent a few minutes exploring and then they headed back. That night our son-in-law pulled out the video that he'd shot of their little expedition. As the picture panned past that darkened cave, he stopped the video and rewound it to get a closer look. And there, gleaming in the darkness, were the two eyes of a big cat – as in panther or cougar. They had not seen that cat - they had been exploring right beneath that cat - and they never knew the danger they were in.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Cats That Never Pounced."
I wonder how many of those you and I have had in our lives; the things that could have hurt us or destroyed us that we never knew about – the cats that never pounced. In an increasingly dangerous world, isn't it great to know that you are under that kind of protection?
Paul wrote about that security in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Timothy 4:17-18. He said, "I was delivered from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom." Now there is a pretty powerful antidote to fear! The Lord is going to rescue me from every threat, except one – the one that's designed to take me home, right on time. That's right on time according to the life plan He made for me before there was a me.
That doesn't mean we don't take precautions, the ones that God directs us to. Paul often continued to preach boldly, even when he knew there were forces who wanted to kill him in the city. But other times he left town quickly or sneaked out of the city in a basket. When Nehemiah and his workers were threatened, he said, "We prayed to our God and we posted a guard day and night" (Nehemiah 4:9). Now, look! Our faith is not in that guard but in our God. But sometimes God chooses to protect us through practical steps that He asks us to take.
But ultimately we're safe because Almighty God is watching over us. In just six verses in Psalm 121, it says "The Lord watches over you" five times! It concludes by saying, "The Lord will keep you from all harm – He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."
So, when is the last time you praised the Lord for all those cats that never pounced? For all those times you've been delivered from danger and never even knew it! Wait ‘till we watch the video in heaven. I think we're going to be amazed at what could have happened that didn't!
By the way, something amazing happens when we finally come to the end of trying to make it to God our own way, and understand that God had to come for us in the person of His Son, Jesus. And the only way that the sin that keeps me out of heaven could be paid for was by His Son dying for me. See, we're totally not safe. We will never be safe forever. We will pay the price for the sin against the God that put us here unless that sin is forgiven by the only One who can, and that's the One who died to pay its' penalty. That's God's Son, Jesus.
What happens when we put our life in His hands is for the first time in your life and finally and forever you are safe in the arms of the Savior. Have you ever given yourself to Him? Let this be the day. You are in great danger. He came to make us safe forever. Open your heart to Him. Go to our website and find out how – ANewStory.com.
You know, when our kids were little, we used to put them to sleep every night singing a little chorus "Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand. Sheltered o'er, sheltered o'er, with His love forevermore. No ill can harm me, no foe alarm me, for He keeps both day and night. Safe am I, in the hollow of His hand." If you're in the hollow of His hand, you're really safe forever. If you've never put your life in Jesus' hands, do it today.
