Max Lucado Daily: WES BISHOP
You’ll look a long time before you’ll find a better man than Wes Bishop. A quick smile, warm handshake, he was a pillar in the small West Texas town of Sweetwater. He raised three great sons, one of whom married my daughter, Jenna. Wes never missed a day of work until he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
He was immobilized, at home in hospice care. A baby monitor was placed beside his bed. He’d hardly spoken for days, but they wanted to hear him if he called out. One night he did. Not for help; he called for Christ. “Jesus, I want to thank you for my life. You’ve been good to me. When you’re ready to take me, I’m ready to go.” Within a couple of days Jesus took him home.
I want that kind of faith, don’t you? The kind of faith that trusts in God.
From God is With You Every Day
2 Chronicles 10
King Rehoboam
Rehoboam traveled to Shechem where all Israel had gathered to inaugurate him as king. Jeroboam was then in Egypt, where he had taken asylum from King Solomon; when he got the report of Solomon’s death, he came back.
3-4 Summoned by Israel, Jeroboam and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said, “Your father made life hard for us—worked our fingers to the bone. Give us a break; lighten up on us and we’ll willingly serve you.”
5 “Give me,” said Rehoboam, “three days to think it over; then come back.” So the people left.
6 King Rehoboam talked it over with the elders who had advised his father when he was alive: “What’s your counsel? How do you suggest that I answer the people?”
7 They said, “If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they’ll end up doing anything for you.”
8-9 But he rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he’d grown up with who were now currying his favor, “What do you think? What should I say to these people who are saying, ‘Give us a break from your father’s harsh ways—lighten up on us’?”
10-11 The young turks he’d grown up with said, “These people who complain, ‘Your father was too hard on us; lighten up’—well, tell them this: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!’”
12-14 Three days later Jeroboam and the people showed up, just as Rehoboam had directed when he said, “Give me three days to think it over; then come back.” The king’s answer was harsh and rude. He spurned the counsel of the elders and went with the advice of the younger set: “If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it: my father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!”
15 Rehoboam turned a deaf ear to the people. God was behind all this, confirming the message that he had given to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah of Shiloh.
16-17 When all Israel realized that the king hadn’t listened to a word they’d said, they stood up to him and said,
Get lost, David!
We’ve had it with you, son of Jesse!
Let’s get out of here, Israel, and fast!
From now on, David, mind your own business.
And with that they left. Rehoboam continued to rule only those who lived in the towns of Judah.
18-19 When King Rehoboam next sent out Adoniram, head of the workforce, the Israelites ganged up on him, pelted him with stones, and killed him. King Rehoboam jumped in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem as fast as he could. Israel has been in rebellion against the Davidic dynasty ever since.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, July 15, 2016
Read: Matthew 10:35–42
“Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don’t deserve me.
38-39 “If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.
40-42 “We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.”
INSIGHT:
After appointing twelve men as His disciples (Matt. 10:1–4), Jesus gave them their first assignment to go and preach the good news that “the kingdom of heaven has come near” (v. 7). Jesus warned that people in the world would not want to hear about Him: “You will be hated by everyone because of me” (v. 22). We, too, may be ignored, opposed, rejected, persecuted, and even killed (vv. 16–22). It may cost us to share the gospel with others, and we may experience hostility even from our own family (vv. 35–36). To overcome these challenges, Jesus calls for a commitment to Him that is greater than any other (vv. 37–39).
Unexpected
By Bill Crowder
Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:39
In the midday heat of summer, while traveling in the American South, my wife and I stopped for ice cream. On the wall behind the counter we saw a sign reading, “Absolutely No Snowmobiling.” The humor worked because it was so unexpected.
Sometimes saying the unexpected has the most effect. Think of this in regard to a statement by Jesus: “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 10:39). In a kingdom where the King is a servant (Mark 10:45), losing your life becomes the only way to find it. This is a startling message to a world focused on self-promotion and self-protection.
Nothing is really lost by a life of sacrifice. -Henry Liddon
In practical terms, how can we “lose our life”? The answer is summed up in the word sacrifice. When we sacrifice, we put into practice Jesus’s way of living. Instead of grasping for our own wants and needs, we esteem the needs and well-being of others.
Jesus not only taught about sacrifice but He also lived it by giving Himself for us. His death on the cross became the ultimate expression of the heart of the King who lived up to His own words: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
Loving Father, teach me the heart of Christ, that I might more fully appre
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 15, 2016
My Life’s Spiritual Honor and Duty
I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians… —Romans 1:14
Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ, and he spent his life to express it. The greatest inspiration in Paul’s life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that same sense of indebtedness to Christ regarding every unsaved soul? As a saint, my life’s spiritual honor and duty is to fulfill my debt to Christ in relation to these lost souls. Every tiny bit of my life that has value I owe to the redemption of Jesus Christ. Am I doing anything to enable Him to bring His redemption into evident reality in the lives of others? I will only be able to do this as the Spirit of God works into me this sense of indebtedness.
I am not a superior person among other people— I am a bondservant of the Lord Jesus. Paul said, “…you are not your own…you were bought at a price…” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Paul sold himself to Jesus Christ and he said, in effect, “I am a debtor to everyone on the face of the earth because of the gospel of Jesus; I am free only that I may be an absolute bondservant of His.” That is the characteristic of a Christian’s life once this level of spiritual honor and duty becomes real. Quit praying about yourself and spend your life for the sake of others as the bondservant of Jesus. That is the true meaning of being broken bread and poured-out wine in real life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 15, 2016
What Love Does To Work - #7700
If you asked our daughter what was one of the most memorable Christmas gifts she ever received as a girl, I think she'd say the dollhouse. Now there are certainly better crafted dollhouses than the one her mother and I gave her, but we made this one! One December, we just hung a "closed" sign on the basement door and we made it into our workshop. Of course our hammering and sawing down there drove all three kids crazy. "What's going on down there?" Frankly, my December was really crammed, so the work was often pretty late. And it took quite a few hours (Face it, I was not ever asked back in the days of that Tool Time show to ever make a guest appearance). But I enjoyed every minute of working on that dollhouse. Was I tired? Yes. Was I too busy to be taking on this project? Yes. Did this make me go beyond the things I do well? For sure. Was it a pleasure? Yes! Why? Because it was for a little girl I loved very much.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Love Does To Work."
Washing someone's feet is not my idea of a job I'd enjoy. But listen to Mary's experience in Luke 7. "When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them." Later, Jesus explained what had been in her heart, "She loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little" (Luke 7:47).
That woman threw everything she had into serving Jesus. She kissed His feet, anointed Him with perfume, and dried His feet with her hair. This was not work for her; this was love. Work is so different when it's an act of loving worship.
Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 3:23-24: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Just like my wife and I working on that dollhouse, when you do it for someone you love, you can do it with joy and you can do it with all your heart.
Maybe you've just been cranking out your responsibilities lately; it's joyless, it's often drudgery. Maybe those around you would testify to hearing more complaining and more negative from your corner lately. It could be you're working for the wrong person.
Don't do it for your boss. Don't do it for your company. Don't work for your pastor or your employees or even your mate or your children. They will all disappoint you sooner or later. They'll make you feel unappreciated. But the work becomes lighter and more joyful when you begin each responsibility by saying, "Lord, I dedicate this everyday chore to You. I love You and this is a love offering." Jesus is worth it! And Jesus will see that every sacrifice, every effort is fully rewarded.
That woman with the perfume used everything she could find to love Jesus. That's a beautiful picture-grabbing everything you do as something to love your Master with.
As busy and tired and inadequate as I was building that dollhouse, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was for someone I really loved. Do your work for someone you really love-for Jesus, who loved you enough to die for you. You may not always love your work, but it makes all the difference when you work for love.