Max Lucado Daily: WE ALL DIE
This heart will feel a final pulse. These lungs will empty a final breath. Barring the return of Christ, I will die and so will you. Psalm 89:48 says, “Who can live and not see death, or who can escape the power of the grave?” Young and old, good and bad, rich and poor. Neither gender is spared; no class exempt. Julius Caesar died. Elvis died. John Kennedy died. Princess Diana died. We all die.
The writer of Hebrews was blunt: “People are destined to die once” (9:27). Exercise all you want. Eat healthy food. Stay out of the sun, away from alcohol, and off drugs. Do your best and still, you die. Death seems like such a dead end. Until we read the words of the angel in Jesus’ resurrection story, “He is not here. He has risen from the dead as he said he would!” (Matthew 28:6).
From God is With You Every Day
2 Corinthians 10
Paul’s Defense of His Ministry
By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! 2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
7 You are judging by appearances.[a] If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. 8 So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. 9 I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. 10 For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” 11 Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.
12 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. 13 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. 14 We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. 15 Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, 16 so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. 17 But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[b] 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
Footnotes:
2 Corinthians 10:7 Or Look at the obvious facts
2 Corinthians 10:17 Jer. 9:24
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 08, 2016
Read: Revelation 22:12–21
“Yes, I’m on my way! I’ll be there soon! I’m bringing my payroll with me. I’ll pay all people in full for their life’s work. I’m A to Z, the First and the Final, Beginning and Conclusion.
14-15 “How blessed are those who wash their robes! The Tree of Life is theirs for good, and they’ll walk through the gates to the City. But outside for good are the filthy curs: sorcerers, fornicators, murderers, idolaters—all who love and live lies.
16 “I, Jesus, sent my Angel to testify to these things for the churches. I’m the Root and Branch of David, the Bright Morning Star.”
17 “Come!” say the Spirit and the Bride.
Whoever hears, echo, “Come!”
Is anyone thirsty? Come!
All who will, come and drink,
Drink freely of the Water of Life!
18-19 I give fair warning to all who hear the words of the prophecy of this book: If you add to the words of this prophecy, God will add to your life the disasters written in this book; if you subtract from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will subtract your part from the Tree of Life and the Holy City that are written in this book.
20 He who testifies to all these things says it again: “I’m on my way! I’ll be there soon!”
Yes! Come, Master Jesus!
21 The grace of the Master Jesus be with all of you. Oh, Yes!
INSIGHT:
Jesus tells us that He is soon to return and will bring with Him a reward for each believer who faithfully waits for Him. We are also told that those who have “washed their robes” have the right to partake of the tree of life. Does this mean that they are meriting a place in heaven through good works? Most certainly not. The New Testament clearly declares: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8–9).
Because I Love Him
By Keila Ochoa
“Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:20
The day before my husband was to return home from a business trip my son said, “Mom! I want Daddy to come home.” I asked him why, expecting him to say something about the presents his daddy usually brings back or that he missed playing ball with him. But with solemn seriousness he answered, “I want him to come back because I love him!”
His answer made me think about our Lord and His promise to come back. “I am coming soon,” Jesus says (Rev. 22:20). I long for His return, but why do I want Him to come back? Is it because I will be in His presence, away from sickness and death? Is it because I am tired of living in a difficult world? Or is it because when you’ve loved Him so much of your life, when He has shared your tears and your laughter, when He has been more real than anybody else, you want to be with Him forever?
“Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:20
I’m glad my son misses his daddy when he’s away. It would be terrible if he didn’t care at all about his return or if he thought it would interfere with his plans. How do we feel about our Lord’s return? Let us long for that day passionately, and earnestly say, “Lord, come back! We love You.”
Lord, please come back soon!
Look forward eagerly for the Lord’s appearing.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 08, 2016
Prayer in the Father’s Honor
…that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. —Luke 1:35
If the Son of God has been born into my human flesh, then am I allowing His holy innocence, simplicity, and oneness with the Father the opportunity to exhibit itself in me? What was true of the Virgin Mary in the history of the Son of God’s birth on earth is true of every saint. God’s Son is born into me through the direct act of God; then I as His child must exercise the right of a child— the right of always being face to face with my Father through prayer. Do I find myself continually saying in amazement to the commonsense part of my life, “Why did you want me to turn here or to go over there? ‘Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’ ” (Luke 2:49). Whatever our circumstances may be, that holy, innocent, and eternal Child must be in contact with His Father.
Am I simple enough to identify myself with my Lord in this way? Is He having His wonderful way with me? Is God’s will being fulfilled in that His Son has been formed in me (see Galatians 4:19), or have I carefully pushed Him to one side? Oh, the noisy outcry of today! Why does everyone seem to be crying out so loudly? People today are crying out for the Son of God to be put to death. There is no room here for God’s Son right now— no room for quiet, holy fellowship and oneness with the Father.
Is the Son of God praying in me, bringing honor to the Father, or am I dictating my demands to Him? Is He ministering in me as He did in the time of His manhood here on earth? Is God’s Son in me going through His passion, suffering so that His own purposes might be fulfilled? The more a person knows of the inner life of God’s most mature saints, the more he sees what God’s purpose really is: to “…fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ…” (Colossians 1:24). And when we think of what it takes to “fill up,” there is always something yet to be done.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.… We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. My Utmost for His Highest, January 6, 736 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 08, 2016
Caving In to the Pressure - #7716
The scene is a high school assembly where I was speaking. I've asked five students to come on stage with me. One young man is blindfolded and standing in the middle of his four friends. They form a square around the blindfolded guy. One has a $10 bill to give him if he chooses to come to their corner of the square. The problem is the other three are going to tell him they have the $10 - even though they don't. In fact, they each have something else to give Mr. Blindfold if he comes to their corner. One has a super-soaker squirt gun to baptize him with, one has a full trash can to dump in his arms, and the other has a whipped cream pie to put in his face. The poor young man in the center knows three of his friends will be lying about having the money and one will be telling the truth, but he has to decide, sight unseen, which corner he'll go to. They each make their convincing pitch for why what he wants is in their corner. Then, he has to decide which voice he's going to follow. Right choice - he walks away better off. Wrong choice - ahh, messy ending!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Caving In to the Pressure."
You have to make those kinds of choices all the time. That's what I point out to the kids in the assembly. You're surrounded by voices urging you to come their direction. There's a lot of pressure from a lot of directions. You have maybe the voice of parents urging you to go a certain direction, your friends, your company, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your church, tons of voices in the culture around us, or the voice of financial security. If you thought you'd lose the peer pressure problem when you left your teenage years, welcome to reality. Your whole life you have a peer group around you, and each peer group has its values and pressures; voices that are saying, "Do it our way and we'll give you something good."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 23 beginning at verse 22. The Roman governor, Pilate, is in this story. He believes in Jesus' innocence but he's facing the voices of many people who want Jesus to be treated as if He's guilty. Here's what the Bible says, "For the third time he spoke to them, 'I have found in Him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore, I will have Him punished and then release Him.' But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that He be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who they had been thrown into prison for murder; the one they had asked for, and he surrendered Jesus to the will of the crowd."
Unbelievable! The murderer will go free and the sinless Son of God will be executed. Pilate knew what was right. He told them what he thought was right. But when it came down to deciding what to do, you heard the words, "their shouts prevailed." He let the pressure push him into abandoning what he knew was right and abandoning Jesus.
But then, haven't we all been Pilate? We've caved in to the pressure, didn't stand for what was right and sold out our Savior. We listened to a voice or voices other than Jesus. We can't have those moments of compromise back. But we can bring them to the Lord repentantly, claim His forgiveness, and pledge to Him that His will be the voice we follow in our choices from now on.
On your knees, in His Book with no other voice around, you ask with no conditions, "Lord, what would You have me to do?" He won't yell like some of the other voices, but His gentle voice will say, "Follow Me this way."
Like that young man listening to the pitches of his four friends, following the wrong voices is going to lead to an unhappy outcome. But there is one voice you can trust who wants to hand you life with no regrets, no guilt, no kickback, no scars.
Don't do a Pontius Pilate and let the other voices make you betray Jesus, the One who loves you the most.
