Max Lucado Daily: GOD SURROUNDS US
God surrounds us like the Pacific surrounds an ocean floor pebble. He is everywhere; above, below, on all sides. We choose our response—rock or sponge? Resist or receive? Everything within you says harden your heart. Run from God, resist God, blame God. But be careful. Hard hearts never heal. Spongy ones do.
Open every pore of your soul to God’s presence. Do so by laying claim to the nearness of God. He says in Hebrews 13:5, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Grip this promise like the parachute it is. Repeat it over and over until it trumps the voices of fear. The Lord God is with you and He is mighty to save! Cling to His character. Quarry from your Bible a list of the deep qualities of God and press them into your heart. He is sovereign. You will get through this!
From You’ll Get Through This
Ephesians 3
The Secret Plan of God
This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
4-6 As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.
7-8 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.
8-10 And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
11-13 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Read: John 6:53–69
But Jesus didn’t give an inch. “Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.”
59 He said these things while teaching in the meeting place in Capernaum.
Too Tough to Swallow
60 Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.”
61-65 Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, “Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”
66-67 After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”
68-69 Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”
INSIGHT:
The backdrop for today’s passage is the forty years God miraculously sustained the Jews with manna (Ex. 16). The feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1–13) caused the Jews to compare Jesus to Moses. Jesus told them it was God, not Moses, who had fed the Jews (v. 32). He then gave them one of the key revelations of His identity: “I am the bread of life” (vv. 35, 48) sent from heaven to offer eternal life (vv. 51, 58).
Beyond Time
By David McCasland
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68–69
During 2016, theater companies in Britain and around the world have staged special productions to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. Concerts, lectures, and festivals have drawn crowds who celebrate the enduring work of the man widely considered to be the greatest playwright in the English language. Ben Jonson, one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, wrote of him, “He was not of an age, but for all time.”
While the influence of some artists, writers, and thinkers may last for centuries, Jesus Christ is the only person whose life and work will endure beyond time. He claimed to be “the bread that came down from heaven . . . whoever feeds on this bread will live forever” (v. 58).
Lord Jesus, thank You for the gift of eternal life.
When many people who heard Jesus’s teaching were offended by His words and stopped following Him (John 6:61–66), the Lord asked His disciples if they also wanted to leave (v. 67). Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God” (vv. 68–69).
When we invite Jesus to come into our lives as our Lord and Savior, we join His first disciples and all those who have followed Him in a new life that will last forever—beyond time.
Lord Jesus, thank You for the gift of eternal life in fellowship with You today and forever.
Jesus is the Son of God, the Man beyond time, who gives us eternal life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Arguments or Obedience
…the simplicity that is in Christ. —2 Corinthians 11:3
Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and…every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).
Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
The Hero Anyone Can Be - #7743
Our daughter was a high school student on the East Coast, our son-in-law in the Midwest when they met. And how did they meet when they lived 800 miles apart? The introducers! Yes, that would be my friend Chuck and me. I was going to Chicago for the kickoff broadcast of my new youth broadcast, which included live call-in. But since I wasn't sure anybody would call the first time, I asked our producer to help me make sure we had some teenage dialog by having a guy and a girl in the studio with me. The subject was, appropriately enough, "The Three Lies of the Dating Game." I brought my daughter; Chuck brought this cool guy from the Chicago suburbs. And my producer and I got to introduce them. It was not love at first sight. No, but it was the first chapter in what became a lifetime love! I think they owe my friend Chuck and me big-time. Because in many cases, no introducer, no relationship!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hero Anyone Can Be."
You remember the person who introduced you to someone who ended up being very important in your life; like in business, in romance, in a group you want to be in-or ultimately, when you get to heaven some day. Oh yes, you remember the introducers. I don't think we'll ever forget the person who introduced us to Jesus. I sure won't forget the lady who introduced a little guy named Ronnie to Jesus years ago.
Hey, look, we can't all preach. We can't all sing or play. We can't all draw, or write, or lead impressively. But we've got one gift that every person has. You've got this treasure. It's the "I" word – influence. Everybody's got some on somebody at school, at work, at home, at the club, in your family-somewhere there's a person or people whose life you affect. It may be just one person. It might be a thousand people, but you have influence over someone. The question is: what are you doing with the influence God has given you? You're supposed to be using your influence to make the introduction!
One of Jesus' disciples understood that very well. He's the quiet disciple, maybe like you. You may say, "Well, I'm no Peter-with all his boldness and strength!" Maybe not, but you might be an Andrew. Anyone can be an Andrew. Every time he turns up in the Book of John, he's doing the same thing.
Act One is in our word for today from the Word of God in John 1:41-42, right after he had met Jesus. The Bible says, "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, and he brought him to Jesus." No quiet Andrew; there's no bold Simon Peter.
Act Two: in John 6, the disciples are trying to figure out how to feed 5,000 people. Guess who finds the boy with the miracle lunch and brings him to Jesus. Yes, Andrew! Later, some Greeks were wanting to see Jesus. Guess who made the connection? Andrew-the bringer, the introducer. We don't know of any miracles Andrew performed. We don't know of any sermons he preached, but we sure do know about the people he introduced to Jesus!
That's why God placed you where you are, with the people you know. You're His designated introducer. You don't have to persuade them to give themselves to Jesus. You don't have to be a great talker or a charismatic personality. You've just got to do what Andrew did-tell them what's happened since you met Jesus and how they can meet Him, too. Tell them about the peace you found in your stormy times, the love you found in your lonely times, the comfort you've gotten from Jesus in your hurting times, the strength in your weak times, and the security you found in your fearful times-because of Jesus. You can do that in your story. Tell them about His love, proven on the cross; His power, proven with an empty tomb.
You know Jesus and you know the person who listens to you. Who do you think Jesus is counting on to be the introducer? You don't have to be a Peter, but you can be an Andrew. You take your friend Jesus in one hand and the person you care about in the other hand, and you be the one who brings them together. For that person you introduce to Jesus, you will be the friend they will never forget!