Max Lucado Daily: NO HURRY OR SCURRY
You don’t have to hurry or scurry! The Spirit-led life does not panic– it trusts. In Ephesians 1:19-20, the Apostle Paul reminds us that “God’s power is very great for us who believe. That power is the same as the great strength God used to raise Christ from the dead and put him at his right side in the heavenly world.”
The same hand that pushed the rock from the tomb can shove away your doubt. The same power that stirred the still heart of Christ can stir your flagging faith. The same strength that put Satan on his heels can, and will, defeat Satan in your life. Just keep the power supply open. Who knows, you may soon hear people asking, “What’s gotten into you?” You see, as God’s story becomes our story, his power becomes our power.
From More to Your Story
1 Corinthians 8
Food Sacrificed to Idols
Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.[a]
4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us,
There is one God, the Father,
by whom all things were created,
and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things were created,
and through whom we live.
7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.
9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer[b] for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers[c] by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.
Footnotes:
8:3 Some manuscripts read the person who loves has full knowledge.
8:11 Greek brother; also in 8:13.
8:12 Greek brothers
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 23, 2016
Read: Ruth 2:1-11
Ruth Works in Boaz’s Field
Now there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech.
2 One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.”
Naomi replied, “All right, my daughter, go ahead.” 3 So Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters. And as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, Elimelech.
4 While she was there, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. “The Lord be with you!” he said.
“The Lord bless you!” the harvesters replied.
5 Then Boaz asked his foreman, “Who is that young woman over there? Who does she belong to?”
6 And the foreman replied, “She is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi. 7 She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters. She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes’ rest in the shelter.”
8 Boaz went over and said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Stay right here with us when you gather grain; don’t go to any other fields. Stay right behind the young women working in my field. 9 See which part of the field they are harvesting, and then follow them. I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly. And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water they have drawn from the well.”
10 Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly. “What have I done to deserve such kindness?” she asked. “I am only a foreigner.”
11 “Yes, I know,” Boaz replied. “But I also know about everything you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers.
INSIGHT:
The book of Ruth demonstrates the redemptive nature of God’s commandments. While many Old Testament laws may sound strange to modern ears, adherence to these laws provided food for the hungry, protection for the foreigner, and hope for the childless widow.
Why Me?
By Keila Ochoa
Why have I found such favor in your eyes? Ruth 2:10
Ruth was a foreigner. She was a widow. She was poor. In many parts of the world today she would be considered a nobody—someone whose future doesn’t hold any hope.
However, Ruth found favor in the eyes of a relative of her deceased husband, a rich man and the owner of the fields where she chose to ask for permission to glean grain. In response to his kindness, Ruth asked, “What have I done to deserve such kindness? . . . I am only a foreigner” (Ruth 2:10 nlt).
When we come to Him in salvation, we are under His protective wings.
Boaz, the good man who showed Ruth such compassion, answered her truthfully. He had heard about her good deeds toward her mother-in-law, Naomi, and how she chose to leave her country and follow Naomi’s God. Boaz prayed that God, "under whose wings" she had come for refuge, would bless her (1:16; 2:11-12; see Ps. 91:4). As her kinsman redeemer (Ruth 3:9), when Boaz married Ruth he became her protector and part of the answer to his prayer.
Like Ruth, we were foreigners and far from God. We may wonder why God would choose to love us when we are so undeserving. The answer is not in us, but in Him. “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Rom. 5:8 nlt). Christ has become our Redeemer. When we come to Him in salvation, we are under His protective wings.
Dear Lord, I don’t know why You love me, but I don’t doubt Your love. I thank You and worship You!
Gratefulness is the heart's response to God's undeserved love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 23, 2016
Our Careful Unbelief
…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. —Matthew 6:25
Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.
“…do not worry about your life….” Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No— “the cares of this world” (Matthew 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, “I will not trust when I cannot see”— and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples. Approved Unto God, 11 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 23, 2016
Tragedy's Eyes - #7661
Laura Ingalls Wilder was the American author of the popular series of books called the "Little House" books. However, her name only became a household word after her death after the "Little House on the Prairie" became the #1 TV series in America. Even though the series has been off the air for years, you can still find it just about any given day in any American city. And Laura's books about her family's life on the frontier have sold far more after her death than when she was alive. And as you read those books, you find that Laura really was a gifted storyteller. In touring the home where she wrote them, we learned one of the reasons why she was such a good story teller. As the TV series portrayed, her older sister went blind as a teenager. And Pa Ingalls told Laura she now had a mission - to be her sister's eyes, to put into words what was going on around them. That gift would later help her tell the stories that would touch the lives of millions.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Tragedy's Eyes."
A tragedy helped Laura Ingalls see things as she had never seen them, helped her develop capabilities that would help her touch many lives that would make her great. That experience is not unique to her.
Americans watched it happen on a national scale after the awful events of September 11, 2001. The deadly attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. But what followed was absolutely amazing - a national unity that most of us had never seen before and we'd love to see again, a renewed love for our country, millions turning to God, a national resolve to change things. It's hard to imagine that any of that would have occurred without the awful catalyst of that tragedy. We saw things we hadn't seen before, and we became something we hadn't been before.
What happened on the national scale - what happened to Laura Ingalls on a personal scale - those are pictures that remind us of the good that can come from some of life's most painful experiences. That could be pretty important for you to remember right now because you're going through one of those painful experiences right now. The pain is deep, but it's not the whole story, because God uses tragedy to help build people into something greater.
Job is the man whose name is forever equated with human suffering. The Bible tells us that he lost his health, his wealth, and his children. As he is coming out of his long, dark tunnel of suffering, he says something very revealing to God. It's in Job 42:5, our word for today from the Word of God. Job says, "My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen you." What Job experienced, millions of believers have experienced over the centuries - that you see God in tragic times in a way you just don't see Him in good times. You don't really know the Lord until you really need the Lord.
Tragedies aren't good, but they can produce a great good. A child of divorce often develops maturity well beyond their peers because of additional responsibility. Out of our health crises, or financial or family crises, our failures can become a compassion, a tenderness, a sensitivity that can open up a lifetime of ministry to hurting people.
And there's something about our hard times that shakes up our priorities. It makes us realize the unimportant things we've been focusing on and the important things we've been neglecting.
There's something about a tragedy that helps us see things we could never see before; things that God will then use to touch many lives.