Max Lucado Daily: GOD HONORS YOU
Jesus’ love does not depend upon what we do for him. Not at all. In the eyes of the King, you have value simply because you are. You don’t have to look nice or perform well. Your value is inborn. Period. Think about that for just a minute. You are valuable just because you exist. Not because of what you’ve done, but simply because you are.
Remember that the next time you are left bobbing in the wake of someone’s steamboat ambition….or some trickster tries to hang a bargain basement price tag on your self-worth. Remember that the next time someone tries to pass you off as a cheap buy. Just think about the way Jesus honors you—and smile. I do! I know I don’t deserve love like that. None of us do.
From More to Your Story
1 Chronicles 15
The Ark Brought to Jerusalem
After David had constructed buildings for himself in the City of David, he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. 2 Then David said, “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister before him forever.”
3 David assembled all Israel in Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to the place he had prepared for it. 4 He called together the descendants of Aaron and the Levites:
5 From the descendants of Kohath,
Uriel the leader and 120 relatives;
6 from the descendants of Merari,
Asaiah the leader and 220 relatives;
7 from the descendants of Gershon,[f]
Joel the leader and 130 relatives;
8 from the descendants of Elizaphan,
Shemaiah the leader and 200 relatives;
9 from the descendants of Hebron,
Eliel the leader and 80 relatives;
10 from the descendants of Uzziel,
Amminadab the leader and 112 relatives.
11 Then David summoned Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab the Levites. 12 He said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. 13 It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.” 14 So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 And the Levites carried the ark of God with the poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord.
16 David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their fellow Levites as musicians to make a joyful sound with musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.
17 So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his relatives, Asaph son of Berekiah; and from their relatives the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah; 18 and with them their relatives next in rank: Zechariah,[g] Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel,[h] the gatekeepers.
19 The musicians Heman, Asaph and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals; 20 Zechariah, Jaaziel,[i] Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah were to play the lyres according to alamoth,[j] 21 and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel and Azaziah were to play the harps, directing according to sheminith.[k] 22 Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.
23 Berekiah and Elkanah were to be doorkeepers for the ark. 24 Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer the priests were to blow trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were also to be doorkeepers for the ark.
25 So David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of units of a thousand went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom, with rejoicing. 26 Because God had helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, seven bulls and seven rams were sacrificed. 27 Now David was clothed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and as were the musicians, and Kenaniah, who was in charge of the singing of the choirs. David also wore a linen ephod. 28 So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouts, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres and harps.
29 As the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David dancing and celebrating, she despised him in her heart.
Footnotes:
1 Chronicles 15:7 Hebrew Gershom, a variant of Gershon
1 Chronicles 15:18 Three Hebrew manuscripts and most Septuagint manuscripts (see also verse 20 and 16:5); most Hebrew manuscripts Zechariah son and or Zechariah, Ben and
1 Chronicles 15:18 Hebrew; Septuagint (see also verse 21) Jeiel and Azaziah
1 Chronicles 15:20 See verse 18; Hebrew Aziel, a variant of Jaaziel.
1 Chronicles 15:20 Probably a musical term
1 Chronicles 15:21 Probably a musical term
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 27, 2016
Read: John 14:16-27
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,[a] who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.[b] 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Footnotes:
14:16 Or Comforter, or Encourager, or Counselor. Greek reads Paraclete; also in 14:26.
14:17 Some manuscripts read and is in you.
INSIGHT:
Today’s passage highlights one of the differences between those who know Jesus and those who do not: The Holy Spirit dwells within believers in Christ. Jesus says that His followers know Him and that the world does not know or accept Him (v. 17). It is the Spirit who identifies us as Jesus’ followers.
Flowing Peace
By Amy Boucher Pye
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. John 14:27
“I’m not surprised you lead retreats,” said an acquaintance in my exercise class. “You have a good aura.” I was jolted but pleased by her comment, because I realized that what she saw as an “aura” in me, I understood to be the peace of Christ. As we follow Jesus, He gives us the peace that transcends understanding (Phil. 4:7) and radiates from within—though we may not even be aware of it.
Jesus promised His followers this peace when, after their last supper together, He prepared them for His death and resurrection. He told them that though they would have trouble in the world, the Father would send them the Spirit of truth to live with them and be in them (John 14:16-17). The Spirit would teach them, bringing to mind His truths; the Spirit would comfort them, bestowing on them His peace. Though soon they would face trials—including fierce opposition from the religious leaders and seeing Jesus executed—He told them not to be afraid. The Holy Spirit’s presence would never leave them.
God’s peace can be His witness to everyone we meet.
Although as God’s children we experience hardship, we too have His Spirit living within and flowing out of us. God’s peace can be His witness to everyone we meet—whether at a local market, at school or work, or in the gym.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank You for welcoming me into Your circle of love. May I share Your peace with someone in my community today.
When we keep our mind on God, His Spirit keeps our mind at peace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 27, 2016
The Life To Know Him
…tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. —Luke 24:49
The disciples had to tarry, staying in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost, not only for their own preparation but because they had to wait until the Lord was actually glorified. And as soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). The statement in John 7:39— “…for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”— does not pertain to us. The Holy Spirit has been given; the Lord is glorified— our waiting is not dependent on the providence of God, but on our own spiritual fitness.
The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Once our Lord was glorified in His ascension, the Holy Spirit came into the world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revealed truth that He is here. The attitude of receiving and welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives is to be the continual attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive reviving life from our ascended Lord.
It is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit that changes people, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into their lives through the Holy Spirit. We all too often separate things that the New Testament never separates. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ— it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not make you think of time or eternity— it is one amazing glorious now. “This is eternal life, that they may know You…” (John 17:3). Begin to know Him now, and never finish.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 27, 2016
Thirty Seconds After You're Gone - #7665
She must have been scared to death. She wasn't a public speaker, but that day she agreed to speak to 70,000 people in a football stadium in the Northwest. It was the last day of Billy Graham's Crusade in her city. And he had asked her to read a letter she'd received from her son. It was the end of the first Gulf War, and the troops were coming home; except for a relatively few American soldiers who weren't coming home and her son was one of them.
He had died in a helicopter crash on the last day of the war. He had written a letter to his mother and given it to a good friend with instructions to mail it only if he was killed. Now she shared that letter with the masses in that stadium, knowing that her son still had something to say by way of what he had written. His letter said, "Mom, if you're reading this letter, it means I didn't make it. But that's OK, Mom. Because now, for the first time, I'm smarter than you are! Because Mom, I've seen heaven. I've seen Jesus!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Thirty Seconds After You're Gone."
What a way to live! What a way to die - knowing that all death is going to do is send you to heaven...to see the One whose death and resurrection opened the door for you to be there. God wants for you to be able to say and to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that 30 seconds after you're gone, you're going to be saying, "I've seen heaven! I've seen Jesus!"
Is it possible to really know that you're going to heaven when you die? Not if you have to earn heaven by living a good life. You'll never know if you're good enough. Keanu Reeves starred in a movie that had some supernatural subject matter. In an interview he was asked, "What are your notions of heaven and hell, and eternal damnation vs. eternal bliss?" He said, "Well, I hope I get the bliss. And I know I'm going to have to work for it."
A lot of folks think that way. God doesn't. He actually says in His book, and these are God's words. "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy" (Titus 3:5). You can't possibly do enough good to satisfy a perfect God or to pay the death penalty for the sinning you've done. It took Jesus to do that.
God tells us that when those who belong to Him are "away from the body," they are "at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). How can you be sure that will be you? As Jesus was dying on the cross, there was a criminal on one side of Him who had started out mocking Him like everybody else. Then, in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 23:42-43, he suddenly says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." What changed him? Moments before, He had heard Jesus say these words from the cross: "Father, forgive them." And that criminal must have thought, "If Jesus would forgive the people who nailed Him there, then He'd forgive me for my sin." Here was Jesus' amazing answer, "Today you will be with me in paradise."
That's what He wants to say to you when you've breathed your last breath, "Today you'll be with Me in heaven - and forever." But that can only happen if you put all your trust in the One who said from the cross where He died for you, "Father, forgive them." He was forgiving you that day. But it's like a gift He's offering you. You have to take what He paid for at such a high price.
When should you do that? The Bible says, "Now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:3). Why would you wait one more day to turn from your sin, to put your trust in Jesus to forgive your sin, and have every sin erased from God's book forever? Why would you wait one more day to trade hell for heaven when you don't know how many more days you'll have?
Let this be your Jesus day. Tell Him now, "Jesus, I believe when You died on that cross it was for sinning I have done. And, Jesus, I am yours from this day on." Our website is there to just help you make sure that you belong to Him. I wish you'd go there as soon as you can today. I invite you to ANewStory.com.
There is no greater peace than going to sleep at night knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt what will happen when you have taken your last breath. You're going to be seeing heaven and you'll be seeing Jesus.