Max Lucado Daily: WE MAKE THE CHOICE
Spend a lifetime telling God to be quiet, and he will do just that. In hell, God honors our request for silence. Hell is not a correctional facility or reform school. Its members hear no candid sermons. They do not hear the Spirit of God, or the voice of God, or the voice of God’s people.
In Ezekiel 33:11 God says, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” It is not God’s will that any should perish, but the fact that some do highlights God’s justice. God must punish sin.
Thanks to Christ, this earth can be the nearest you come to hell. But apart from Christ, this earth is the nearest you’ll come to heaven. John 3:16 says “whoever believes in him shall not perish. . .” God makes the offer but we make the choice. What is your choice?
From 3:16
Psalm 133
A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of David.
1 How wonderful and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in harmony!
2 For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil
that was poured over Aaron’s head,
that ran down his beard
and onto the border of his robe.
3 Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon
that falls on the mountains of Zion.
And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing,
even life everlasting.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 25, 2016
Read: 2 Samuel 22:26-37
“To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
to those with integrity you show integrity.
27 To the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
28 You rescue the humble,
but your eyes watch the proud and humiliate them.
29 O Lord, you are my lamp.
The Lord lights up my darkness.
30 In your strength I can crush an army;
with my God I can scale any wall.
31 “God’s way is perfect.
All the Lord’s promises prove true.
He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
32 For who is God except the Lord?
Who but our God is a solid rock?
33 God is my strong fortress,
and he makes my way perfect.
34 He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
enabling me to stand on mountain heights.
35 He trains my hands for battle;
he strengthens my arm to draw a bronze bow.
36 You have given me your shield of victory;
your help[a] has made me great.
37 You have made a wide path for my feet
to keep them from slipping.
Footnotes:
22:36 As in Dead Sea Scrolls; Masoretic Text reads your answering.
INSIGHT:
In 2 Samuel 22 David celebrates the faithfulness of God. Many of the same ideas and some of the same words are found in Psalm 18. The superscription to Psalm 18 says: For the director of music. Of David the servant of the Lord. He sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. These words were so important to David that he reflected on them often. Bill Crowder
Greater than the Mess
By David McCasland
You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. 2 Samuel 22:29
A major theme of the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel could easily be “Life is a mess!” It has all the elements of a blockbuster TV miniseries. As David sought to establish his rule as king of Israel, he faced military challenges, political intrigue, and betrayal by friends and family members. And David himself was certainly not without guilt as his relationship with Bathsheba clearly showed (chs. 11–12).
Yet near the end of 2 Samuel we find David’s song of praise to God for His mercy, love, and deliverance. “You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light” (22:29).
Life is messy, but God is greater than the mess.
In many of his difficulties, David turned to the Lord. “With your help I can advance against a troop [run through a barricade]; with my God I can scale a wall” (v. 30).
Perhaps we identify with David’s struggles because he, like us, was far from perfect. Yet he knew that God was greater than the most chaotic parts of his life.
With David we can say, “As for God, his way is perfect: the Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him” (v. 31). And that includes us!
Life is messy, but God is greater than the mess.
Lord, we cannot read about the failures and difficulties of others without being reminded of our own. We bring them all to You, seeking forgiveness and Your power for a fresh start.
It’s not too late to make a fresh start with God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 25, 2016
“Ready in Season”
Be ready in season and out of season. —2 Timothy 4:2
Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One of the worst traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you tend to say, “Now that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, and God will make sure of that. Those times are entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 25, 2016
How to Build a Love that Lasts a Lifetime - #7641
Valentine's Day! That's the season when all of us think about the love we found, or the love we lost, or the love we're looking for. And, man, people are looking! Did you know there are over 5,000 dating websites, including Match.com, OKCupid, along with SeniorPeopleMeet, Farmers Only and DateACowboy.com?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Build a Love that Lasts a Lifetime."
Love is where we place our greatest hopes. It's where we experience our greatest fears and our greatest hurts, and make our greatest mistakes. It's a treasure, for sure, but it's a fragile treasure. Like a fragile plant, love has to be watered and protected with some basic love-nurturing steps.
Let me give you some. First of all, handing out goodies – emotional goodies that is. Love thrives on affirmation, encouragement, compliments, praise, "atta-boys." But love is torn down by critical words, angry words, sarcastic words; on our lips momentarily, in their memory forever. The Bible so wisely says, "The tongue has the power of life and death" and "reckless words pierce like a sword" (Proverbs 18:21; 12:18).
That's why the Bible's challenge to "encourage one another daily" (Hebrews 3:13) is glue for a love that lasts. Because everybody needs a cheerleader, and all of us need to be one.
Secondly, unpack your suitcase; the suitcase where we carry the junk from our past into the present. The abuse. The betrayal. The neglect. The injustice. And the anger and negativity and bitterness that go with it. Unless we face it, we can't fix it. And if we don't fix it, we'll spread it. The poison will spill into lives that don't even deserve it. And they will poison love.
That's why God tells us in Hebrews 12:15, "See to it that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." If we harbor resentment and unforgiveness, it's just going to keep growing into a monster that invades every close relationship.
Unpacking this suitcase we've carried so long has a name. It's called forgiving, which sometimes seems like humanly impossible. But it's not supernaturally impossible, because the One who forgave His crucifiers will download His forgiveness into any struggling heart and He'll pour His healing into every broken heart.
Thirdly, relinquish the wheel, because controlling people hardens their heart and pushes them away. Control freaks are fixers. We're always trying to fix and change what we love. But when you hold onto something too tightly, you crush it – including love.
I've found a lot of freedom in five words John the Baptist spoke long ago, "I am not the Messiah." When you realize that it's your job to love people and it's God's job to change them, you can experience the wonderful freedom of releasing what you've been controlling.
I guess most importantly, to build a love that lasts a lifetime, anchor your heart. See, there's a problem with love. It's "loseable." Betrayal. Divorce. Death. No human love can truly anchor a human heart, a lonely heart. So how can that aching hole in our hearts ever be filled? How can we finally know that we're safe in a love we can't lose?
Our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:39, "Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That's God's ironclad guarantee to every person who belongs to His Son, who proved His love in blood poured out on a cross for the very sins you've done against Him.
This is love that comes looking for us all the way from heaven to the cross. And He's come looking for you today through our time together. So, let today be the day to let His love in. Let Jesus in and say, "Jesus, the life you died for, that you paid for with your life is yours beginning today. I am yours."
Our website is to help you get there – ANewStory.com. Would you go there? The love of a lifetime is within your reach right now.
