Max Lucado Daily: OUR NAZARETHS
Millions facing the chill of empty pockets or the fears of sudden change turn to Christ. Why? Because he’s been there! He’s been to Nazareth where he made deadlines and paid bills and he’s been to Jerusalem where he stared down critics and stood up against cynics.
We have our Nazareths as well. Jesus wasn’t the last to build a team, and his accusers didn’t disappear with Jerusalem’s temple. Why seek Jesus’ help with your challenges? Because he’s been there.
But most of all he’s been to the grave. Not as a visitor, but as a corpse. Body wrapped and grave sealed. Buried. You haven’t yet, but you will be. And since you will…don’t you need someone who knows the way out? God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! A way to have life that cannot be destroyed!
From 3:16
Psalm 135
Praise the Lord!
Praise the name of the Lord!
Praise him, you who serve the Lord,
2 you who serve in the house of the Lord,
in the courts of the house of our God.
3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
celebrate his lovely name with music.
4 For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel for his own special treasure.
5 I know the greatness of the Lord—
that our Lord is greater than any other god.
6 The Lord does whatever pleases him
throughout all heaven and earth,
and on the seas and in their depths.
7 He causes the clouds to rise over the whole earth.
He sends the lightning with the rain
and releases the wind from his storehouses.
8 He destroyed the firstborn in each Egyptian home,
both people and animals.
9 He performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt
against Pharaoh and all his people.
10 He struck down great nations
and slaughtered mighty kings—
11 Sihon king of the Amorites,
Og king of Bashan,
and all the kings of Canaan.
12 He gave their land as an inheritance,
a special possession to his people Israel.
13 Your name, O Lord, endures forever;
your fame, O Lord, is known to every generation.
14 For the Lord will give justice to his people
and have compassion on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold,
shaped by human hands.
16 They have mouths but cannot speak,
and eyes but cannot see.
17 They have ears but cannot hear,
and mouths but cannot breathe.
18 And those who make idols are just like them,
as are all who trust in them.
19 O Israel, praise the Lord!
O priests—descendants of Aaron—praise the Lord!
20 O Levites, praise the Lord!
All you who fear the Lord, praise the Lord!
21 The Lord be praised from Zion,
for he lives here in Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Read: Matthew 8:23-28
Jesus Calms the Storm
23 Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. 24 Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.
27 The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”
Jesus Heals Two Demon-Possessed Men
28 When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gadarenes,[a] two men who were possessed by demons met him. They came out of the tombs and were so violent that no one could go through that area.
Footnotes:
8:28 Other manuscripts read Gerasenes; still others read Gergesenes. Compare Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26.
INSIGHT:
When sin came into the world, everything broke. The earth no longer functioned as it was supposed to. Our bodies and minds became susceptible to sickness, disease, and demonic oppression. And we found ourselves relationally separated from God and other humans. In Matthew 8 Jesus shows His authority over sin in all these areas. The kingdom of God is not just a place we go to when we die. It is a kingdom Jesus began during His time on earth. He manifested it every time He healed a sick person, drove out a demon, or calmed a storm. And it will be ultimately revealed when He returns to earth again and makes everything whole, perfect, and new. Dennis Moles
Storms on the Horizon
By David Roper
What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him! Matthew 8:27
Our son, Josh, is a commercial salmon fisherman in Kodiak, Alaska. Some time ago he sent me a photograph he took of a tiny vessel a few hundred yards ahead of his boat moving through a narrow pass. Ominous storm clouds loom on the horizon. But a rainbow, the sign of God’s providence and loving care, stretches from one side of the pass to the other, encircling the little boat.
The photograph reflects our earthly voyage: We sail into an uncertain future, but we are surrounded by the faithfulness of God!
We sail into the uncertain future surrounded by the faithfulness of God!
Jesus’ disciples were surrounded by a storm, and He used the experience to teach them about the power and faithfulness of God (Matt. 8:23-27). We seek answers for the uncertainties of life. We watch the future growing closer and wonder what will happen to us there. Puritan poet John Keble captured this in one of his poems in which he watched the future as it drew near. But as he watched he was “waiting to see what God will do.”
Whether young or old we all face uncertain futures. Heaven answers: God's love and goodness encircle us no matter what awaits us. We wait and see what God will do!
What do you need to trust God with today?
We sail into the uncertain future surrounded by the faithfulness of God!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
What Do You Want?
Do you seek great things for yourself? —Jeremiah 45:5
Are you seeking great things for yourself, instead of seeking to be a great person? God wants you to be in a much closer relationship with Himself than simply receiving His gifts— He wants you to get to know Him. Even some large thing we want is only incidental; it comes and it goes. But God never gives us anything incidental. There is nothing easier than getting into the right relationship with God, unless it is not God you seek, but only what He can give you.
If you have only come as far as asking God for things, you have never come to the point of understanding the least bit of what surrender really means. You have become a Christian based on your own terms. You protest, saying, “I asked God for the Holy Spirit, but He didn’t give me the rest and the peace I expected.” And instantly God puts His finger on the reason– you are not seeking the Lord at all; you are seeking something for yourself. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7). Ask God for what you want and do not be concerned about asking for the wrong thing, because as you draw ever closer to Him, you will cease asking for things altogether. “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should you ask? So that you may get to know Him.
Are you seeking great things for yourself? Have you said, “Oh, Lord, completely fill me with your Holy Spirit”? If God does not, it is because you are not totally surrendered to Him; there is something you still refuse to do. Are you prepared to ask yourself what it is you want from God and why you want it? God always ignores your present level of completeness in favor of your ultimate future completeness. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy right now, but He’s continually working out His ultimate perfection for you— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
A Bigger Purpose Than You Ever Dreamed - #7643
Ashley Smith was just getting her life back together. As a 26-year old single mom, she had had a pretty rough journey. A Christian upbringing but a youthful rebellion – brushes with the law, some drug issues, jobs found and lost – and finally marriage and a little girl. Four years earlier, her husband had died in her arms from stab wounds in a violent attack. On that night in March of 2005, she was just getting settled in the apartment she had moved into two days earlier. When she returned from her 2:00 A. M. run to the store, accused killer, Brian Nichols, forced his way into her apartment at gunpoint.
Nichols was the object of the largest manhunt in Georgia history after his deadly escape from a downtown courtroom where he left the judge and three others shot to death. Later, he shot another man. Initially, he bound and gagged Ashley. Eventually, he began to trust her enough to give her some freedom. For seven hours, she began to talk to the killer in her living room. She talked about the battles of her life, about the little daughter she was supposed to pick up the next morning, and about her newly reborn faith. With his permission, she read to him from the book she was reading, "The Purpose-Driven Life."
Ultimately, unbelievably, he allowed Ashley to leave – after she seemingly had persuaded him to consider ending the killing and to give up peacefully. After she called law enforcement – as he almost surely knew she would – they swarmed around that apartment only to see him come out and quietly surrender. Later, Ashley Smith recalled some extraordinary things that Brian Nichols had said to her. He told her he thought she was an angel sent from God, that he was lost and that God had led him right to her so she could tell him, from the well of her own hurt, how the people he had hurt were feeling.
She told him he was a child of God and that she wanted him to do God's will. Then she said, "I guess he began to want to." For days, the national media talked over and over again about those extraordinary seven hours and the incredible young woman who had helped end a bloodbath. She said it wasn't her at all. It was the God who was leading her now "purpose-driven life."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Bigger Purpose Than You Ever Dreamed."
Ashley Smith, unlikely hero for God, was on assignment from God that night. So are you. With her life on the line, she didn't miss the divine opportunity in front of her to save a life and maybe even a soul. Make sure you don't miss yours.
Because every one of us is like Esther in Bible days, who was chosen Queen of Persia so she would ultimately be in a position to save her people from the king's decree to destroy them. The challenge from the man who raised her is recorded in Esther 4:14, our word for today from the Word of God: "Who knows but that you have come into your royal position for such a time as this?"
Just like Esther, just like Ashley Smith, you have been divinely positioned to save the lives of people you live close to, you work with, and you go to school with. God does these life-saving divine match-ups as He did that amazing night in Ashley Smith's apartment. Who would have guessed? He puts you with people who can be reached by someone like you, however unqualified you may feel. But God knows that your background, your battles, your interests, even your failures, your abilities uniquely qualify you to rescue a particular lost person that He brings into your life.
Life suddenly becomes amazingly exciting when you live it assuming God is setting up divine match-ups – and using those match-ups so you can tell about your Jesus. Rescuing people that God has assigned to you becomes the eternal purpose that drives your life.
Wherever God puts you – whoever God puts you with – remember that purpose. And help the people He brings your way be in heaven with you someday!