Max Lucado Daily: IN JESUS’ NAME
The phrase, in Jesus’ name, is not an empty motto. It’s a declaration of truth! Your cancer is not in charge, Jesus is. The economy is not in charge, Jesus is. The grumpy neighbor doesn’t run the world– Jesus, you do! You are the CEO, the President, the King, Supreme Ruler, and Absolute Monarch. You are the High and Holy Baron, the Czar, the Overlord, and Rajah of all history. Just speak the word, Jesus!
And pray! When you pray in Jesus’ name, God responds. And since God is good, prayer is good. Since you matter to God, your prayers matter in heaven. You are never without hope, my friend, because you are never without prayer. And when you can’t find the words to say, pull this out of your pocket:
Father, you are good.
I need help. Heal me and forgive me.
They need help.
Thank you.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
From God is With You Every Day
2 Corinthians 2
That’s why I decided not to make another visit that could only be painful to both of us. If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how would you then be free to cheer and refresh me?
3-4 That was my reason for writing a letter instead of coming—so I wouldn’t have to spend a miserable time disappointing the very friends I had looked forward to cheering me up. I was convinced at the time I wrote it that what was best for me was also best for you. As it turned out, there was pain enough just in writing that letter, more tears than ink on the parchment. But I didn’t write it to cause pain; I wrote it so you would know how much I care—oh, more than care—love you!
5-8 Now, regarding the one who started all this—the person in question who caused all this pain—I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don’t want to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love.
9-11 The focus of my letter wasn’t on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church. So if you forgive him, I forgive him. Don’t think I’m carrying around a list of personal grudges. The fact is that I’m joining in with your forgiveness, as Christ is with us, guiding us. After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!
An Open Door
12-14 When I arrived in Troas to proclaim the Message of the Messiah, I found the place wide open: God had opened the door; all I had to do was walk through it. But when I didn’t find Titus waiting for me with news of your condition, I couldn’t relax. Worried about you, I left and came on to Macedonia province looking for Titus and a reassuring word on you. And I got it, thank God!
14-16 In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.
16-17 This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Read: Matthew 14:22–36
Walking on the Water
As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night.
24-26 Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared out of their wits. “A ghost!” they said, crying out in terror.
27 But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Courage, it’s me. Don’t be afraid.”
28 Peter, suddenly bold, said, “Master, if it’s really you, call me to come to you on the water.”
29-30 He said, “Come ahead.”
Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, “Master, save me!”
31 Jesus didn’t hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, “Faint-heart, what got into you?”
32-33 The two of them climbed into the boat, and the wind died down. The disciples in the boat, having watched the whole thing, worshiped Jesus, saying, “This is it! You are God’s Son for sure!”
34-36 On return, they beached the boat at Gennesaret. When the people got wind that he was back, they sent out word through the neighborhood and rounded up all the sick, who asked for permission to touch the edge of his coat. And whoever touched him was healed.
INSIGHT:
Prayer was the essence of Jesus’s relationship with the Father. He often withdrew to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 9:18). Sometimes He spent long hours communicating with His Father (Luke 6:12; John 17) and other times He prayed short, quick prayers (Matt. 14:19; Luke 23:34,46; John 12:27).
Something I Should Know?
By David McCasland
He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Matthew 14:23
During a concert, singer-songwriter David Wilcox responded to a question from the audience about how he composes songs. He said there are three aspects to his process: a quiet room, an empty page, and the question, “Is there something I should know?” It struck me as a wonderful approach for followers of Jesus as we seek the Lord’s plan for our lives each day.
Throughout Jesus’s public ministry, He took time to be alone in prayer. After feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, He sent His disciples to cross the Sea of Galilee by boat while He dismissed the crowd (Matt. 14:22). “After [Jesus] had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone” (v. 23).
Lord, speak to me by Your Spirit and Your written Word
If the Lord Jesus saw the need to be alone with His Father, how much more do we need a daily time of solitude to pour out our hearts to God, ponder His Word, and prepare to follow His directions. A quiet room—anywhere we can focus on the Lord without distractions. An empty page—a receptive mind, a blank sheet of paper, a willingness to listen. Is there something I should know? “Lord, speak to me by Your Spirit, Your written Word, and the assurance of Your direction.”
From that quiet hillside, Jesus descended into a violent storm, knowing exactly what His Father wanted Him to do (vv. 24–27).
Taking time to be with God is the best place to find strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
The Price of the Vision
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord… —Isaiah 6:1
Our soul’s personal history with God is often an account of the death of our heroes. Over and over again God has to remove our friends to put Himself in their place, and that is when we falter, fail, and become discouraged. Let me think about this personally— when the person died who represented for me all that God was, did I give up on everything in life? Did I become ill or disheartened? Or did I do as Isaiah did and see the Lord?
My vision of God is dependent upon the condition of my character. My character determines whether or not truth can even be revealed to me. Before I can say, “I saw the Lord,” there must be something in my character that conforms to the likeness of God. Until I am born again and really begin to see the kingdom of God, I only see from the perspective of my own biases. What I need is God’s surgical procedure— His use of external circumstances to bring about internal purification.
Your priorities must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God and no one else is taken into account whatsoever. Your prayer will then be, “In all the world there is no one but You, dear God; there is no one but You.”
Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Setting People Free - #7698
John Parker had it made. After two attempts to escape being a slave to a Southern slave owner, he had finally gotten his freedom. He chose to live in Ripley, Ohio, right on the freedom side of the Ohio River. He got a house and he got a good job as a factory worker. In fact, ultimately, he owned a foundry and he invented many processes that were used widely in the foundry industry. He was safe, secure and successful. But night after night, John Parker risked it all. Under cover of darkness, he rowed across the river to the Kentucky side-slave territory. If he was caught, he could lose his freedom. He could even lose his life. But in spite of the risks, John Parker went looking for runaway slaves. And he found them and rowed them across the river to the freedom side. It's actually believed that John Parker was responsible for at least 900 slaves going free.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Setting People Free."
A liberated slave, taking great risks, because he can't leave other slaves where he once was – that is a hero. That's the kind of hero Jesus is looking for right now among His followers. It's the kind of hero who, humanly speaking, is the only hope for some folks that you're close to ever having a chance at heaven.
The Bible graphically describes the bondages we're all in until we're set free by Jesus and by His life-saving work on the cross. In John 8:34, He said that "whoever commits sin is a slave to sin." It's true. We can't stop being selfish, being hurtful, thinking dirty, talking trash, being negative, prideful, angry, or self-absorbed. We're addicted to our sin. The Bible also describes us as being "without hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) It also says that all our lives we have been "held in slavery to the fear of death." (Hebrews 2:15) We're nervous about death because we know God's on the other side, and we're not ready to meet Him.
And ultimately, our family and friends and coworkers who haven't been to Jesus to have their sins forgiven, will in God's own words, "...be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord." (2 Thessalonians 1:9) Thank God, someone came to you with the liberating news of what Jesus did on the cross for you, and you were set free by the Son of God! Now the question is, can you be content just to be free and forgiven yourself and let the sin-slaves all around you stay where they are? Whose responsibility is it to take the risks to rescue them? You're the liberated slave that Jesus has placed in their world. He's counting on you. They're counting on you and they don't even know it.
Which brings us to our Lord's orders in our word for today from the Word of God in Jude, verse 23; eight words that describe just why you are where you are, with the people you see all the time. "Snatch others from the fire and save them." You were rescued. Now you need to be the rescuer.
If you'll evaluate the fears that keep you from "crossing the river" to bring them out, you'll notice those fears all have one thing in common. They're all about "me." They might reject me, I might mess it up. But rescue is all about them. A rescuer is still afraid of what might happen to him if he goes in for the rescue, but he's driven by a greater fear. What will happen if he doesn't go in for the rescue? Someone will die without a chance.
Jesus rescued you to be a rescuer. You are the liberated slave that He set free whose mission is to liberate others who are where you were. Jesus gave everything to snatch you from the fire. If you leave others where you were, you'll explain to Jesus why you did. You are their chance!