Max Lucado Daily: ADOPTED INTO GOD’S FAMILY
To accept God’s grace is to accept God’s offer to be adopted into his family! Your identity isn’t in your possessions, talents or accomplishments. Nor are you defined by your deficiencies or dumb choices. You are God’s child. You get to call him, “Papa.” And Paul says in the Scriptures that you “may approach God with freedom and confidence” (Ephesians 3:12). The adoption is horizontal as well as vertical. You’re included in the forever family. Dividing walls of hostility are broken down, and community is created on the basis of a common Father. Instant family worldwide!
Trust God’s verdict. If God loves you, you must be worth loving! If he wants you in his kingdom, then you must be worth having. God’s grace requires you—to change your attitude about yourself and take sides with God about any feelings of rejection you have!
From God is With You Every Day
2 Corinthians 8
The Collection for the Lord’s People
And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you[a]—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”[b]
Titus Sent to Receive the Collection
16 Thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you. 17 For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative. 18 And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. 19 What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honor the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. 20 We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. 21 For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.
22 In addition, we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you. 23 As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honor to Christ. 24 Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.
Footnotes:
2 Corinthians 8:7 Some manuscripts and in your love for us
2 Corinthians 8:15 Exodus 16:18
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 01, 2016
Read: Deuteronomy 34:1–12
Moses climbed from the Plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the peak of Pisgah facing Jericho. God showed him all the land from Gilead to Dan, all Naphtali, Ephraim, and Manasseh; all Judah reaching to the Mediterranean Sea; the Negev and the plains which encircle Jericho, City of Palms, as far south as Zoar.
4 Then and there God said to him, “This is the land I promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the words ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I’ve let you see it with your own eyes. There it is. But you’re not going to go in.”
5-6 Moses died there in the land of Moab, Moses the servant of God, just as God said. God buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor. No one knows his burial site to this very day.
7-8 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyesight was sharp; he still walked with a spring in his step. The People of Israel wept for Moses in the Plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.
9 Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. The People of Israel listened obediently to him and did the same as when God had commanded Moses.
10-12 No prophet has risen since in Israel like Moses, whom God knew face-to-face. Never since has there been anything like the signs and miracle-wonders that God sent him to do in Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land—nothing to compare with that all-powerful hand of his and all the great and terrible things Moses did as every eye in Israel watched.
INSIGHT:
Although Moses walked with God, he wasn’t perfect. In response to the grumbling Israelites, he got angry and acted in disobedience. Instead of speaking to the rock, he struck it. This impulsive act called attention to him rather than to God, and he lost his opportunity to enter the Promised Land (Num. 20:1–12).
The Best Is Yet to Come
By James Banks
The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:27
Are the best days of your life behind or in front of you? Our outlook on life—and our answer to that question—can change with time. When we’re younger, we look ahead, wanting to grow up. And once we’ve grown older, we yearn for the past, wanting to be young again. But when we walk with God, whatever our age, the best is yet to come!
Over the course of his long life, Moses witnessed the amazing things God did, and many of those amazing things happened when he was no longer a young man. Moses was 80 years old when he confronted Pharaoh and saw God miraculously set His people free from slavery (Ex. 3–13). Moses saw the Red Sea part, saw manna fall from heaven, and even spoke with God “face to face” (14:21; 16:4; 33:11).
When we walk with God, the best is yet to come.
Throughout his life, Moses lived expectantly, looking ahead to what God would do (Heb. 11:24–27). He was 120 years old in his final year of life on this earth, and even then he understood that his life with God was just getting started and that he would never see an end to God’s greatness and love.
Regardless of our age, “the eternal God is [our] refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27) that faithfully carry us into His joy each day.
O Lord my God, I praise You for all You have done in the past. I look forward with thankfulness for all You will do in the future. And I thank You for today and all Your blessings.
When we walk with God, the best is yet to come.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 01, 2016
Learning About His Ways
When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples…He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. —Matthew 11:1
He comes where He commands us to leave. If you stayed home when God told you to go because you were so concerned about your own people there, then you actually robbed them of the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself. When you obeyed and left all the consequences to God, the Lord went into your city to teach, but as long as you were disobedient, you blocked His way. Watch where you begin to debate with Him and put what you call your duty into competition with His commands. If you say, “I know that He told me to go, but my duty is here,” it simply means that you do not believe that Jesus means what He says.
He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. “Master…let us make three tabernacles…” (Luke 9:33).
Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God’s role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us regarding His Son, and He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. When we become certain that God is going to work in a particular way, He will never work in that way again.
He works where He sends us to wait. “…tarry…until…” (Luke 24:49). “Wait on the Lord” and He will work (Psalm 37:34). But don’t wait sulking spiritually and feeling sorry for yourself, just because you can’t see one inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual fits of emotion to “wait patiently for Him”? (Psalm 37:7). Waiting is not sitting with folded hands doing nothing, but it is learning to do what we are told.
These are some of the facets of His ways that we rarely recognize.
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
Monday, August 01, 2016
A Hundred and Eighty Degrees - #7711
Not long ago we met some wonderful radio listeners from the Sault St. Marie area of Michigan. That's way up north, you know, near the Canadian border. They told me this amusing, and slightly amazing, true story about a woman they met recently. She was driving from Detroit, which is about six hours south of them, so she had made a good northward trek, and she was lost. So she stopped in at our friend's workplace looking for directions. Now that's not anything unusual. But she walked in the door blurting one frustrated question, "Which way's Texas?" Texas! Well, for starters, ma'am, you need to turn that car around and go six hours back to the place you started!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Hundred and Eighty Degrees."
Now for that lady to end up where she wanted to end up, she had to make a 180 degree turn. So do you, if you're heading in a direction that isn't God's direction for you; if you're doing things you know God doesn't want you to do. Well, God has a 180 degree turn for you and there's the word for it - repent.
In fact, He makes an encouraging promise in our word for today from the Word of God on what's on the other side of repentance. Acts 3:19, "Repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, and times of refreshing may come from the Lord." God has all kinds of things He's wanting to give you, but He can't until you repent.
Repenting of a sin and getting headed in the right direction really involves three steps; the same three steps really that lady who was trying to find Texas at the Canada border had to take.
First, you have to admit you're going the wrong way. It took that lady a little while to do that, but finally she was willing to face the fact that the road she was on was the wrong road. You do that with God when you accept His invitation in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins." Now, that means saying the same thing as God says about what you've been doing. Then it says, "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." No more excuses, no more blaming, no more rationalizing, no more cover-ups. "God, this stuff is sin and it's sin that killed your Son."
But it wasn't enough for that lady just to admit she was going the wrong way. She had to stop going the wrong way. Until she pulled over and quit going the wrong direction, she was getting "loster and loster." And so will you. See, repenting is setting up your life as if you're not going to be doing that sin anymore. You destroy any sin-props that you have. You avoid the influences and the people that feed that sin. You change what you watch and read and listen to. And you ask a believer that you trust to keep checking on you, to hold you accountable for being the new you. That's why the Bible says, "Two are better than one. If one falls down, the other can help him up."
Now there's a third step: repenting also means starting to go the right direction. Until that lady turned around and started driving the right way, she was going to stay lost.
So, to make a spiritual change, you need to actively start doing the things that actually will take you as quickly as possible in the opposite direction of that old sin. Like making things right with those who were affected by you doing that sin, telling the key people in your life that you are going to be different, feeding yourself the influences and relationships that will strengthen the new you, and then going out of your way to do the right thing where you've been doing the wrong thing. Like over-correcting a car when you know you're swerving in the wrong direction.
We're not talking about just feeling guilty or just asking God to forgive you. That's not complete repentance. We're talking a 180 degree turn! And with God's unlimited power, you can change! And the beautiful thing is, He says, "Then I can begin to send you all the things I've wanted to send you, but your sin has blocked it." Times of refreshing will come from the Lord.
Look, you've driven far enough on a road that goes nowhere haven't you? Turn it around! What you're looking for is in the other direction. It's in God's direction!