Max Lucado Daily: WHAT GOD WILL DO
Maybe God and prayer are all you have. You face discouragement, deception, defeat, destruction, death. They roar into your world like a Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Their goal is to chase you back into the wilderness of sin.
Don’t give an inch. You are a member of God’s family. You come to God not as a stranger but as an heir. Earnestly make your requests known to him, not because of what you have achieved, but because of what Christ has done. Jesus spilled his blood for you. You can spill your heart before God. Jesus said if you have faith, you can tell a mountain to go and jump into the sea (Mark 11:23).
What is your mountain? Call out to God for help…today! Will he do what you want? I cannot say, but this I can. He will do what is best!
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 43
When You’re Between a Rock and a Hard Place
But now, God’s Message,
the God who made you in the first place, Jacob,
the One who got you started, Israel:
“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
it won’t be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
The Holy of Israel, your Savior.
I paid a huge price for you:
all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!
That’s how much you mean to me!
That’s how much I love you!
I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,
trade the creation just for you.
5-7 “So don’t be afraid: I’m with you.
I’ll round up all your scattered children,
pull them in from east and west.
I’ll send orders north and south:
‘Send them back.
Return my sons from distant lands,
my daughters from faraway places.
I want them back, every last one who bears my name,
every man, woman, and child
Whom I created for my glory,
yes, personally formed and made each one.’”
8-13 Get the blind and deaf out here and ready—
the blind (though there’s nothing wrong with their eyes)
and the deaf (though there’s nothing wrong with their ears).
Then get the other nations out here and ready.
Let’s see what they have to say about this,
how they account for what’s happened.
Let them present their expert witnesses
and make their case;
let them try to convince us what they say is true.
“But you are my witnesses.” God’s Decree.
“You’re my handpicked servant
So that you’ll come to know and trust me,
understand both that I am and who I am.
Previous to me there was no such thing as a god,
nor will there be after me.
I, yes I, am God.
I’m the only Savior there is.
I spoke, I saved, I told you what existed
long before these upstart gods appeared on the scene.
And you know it, you’re my witnesses,
you’re the evidence.” God’s Decree.
“Yes, I am God.
I’ve always been God
and I always will be God.
No one can take anything from me.
I make; who can unmake it?”
You Didn’t Even Do the Minimum
14-15 God, your Redeemer,
The Holy of Israel, says:
“Just for you, I will march on Babylon.
I’ll turn the tables on the Babylonians.
Instead of whooping it up,
they’ll be wailing.
I am God, your Holy One,
Creator of Israel, your King.”
16-21 This is what God says,
the God who builds a road right through the ocean,
who carves a path through pounding waves,
The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—
they lie down and then can’t get up;
they’re snuffed out like so many candles:
“Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’
—the coyotes and the buzzards—
Because I provided water in the desert,
rivers through the sun-baked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
the people I made especially for myself,
a people custom-made to praise me.
22-24 “But you didn’t pay a bit of attention to me, Jacob.
You so quickly tired of me, Israel.
You wouldn’t even bring sheep for offerings in worship.
You couldn’t be bothered with sacrifices.
It wasn’t that I asked that much from you.
I didn’t expect expensive presents.
But you didn’t even do the minimum—
so stingy with me, so closefisted.
Yet you haven’t been stingy with your sins.
You’ve been plenty generous with them—and I’m fed up.
25 “But I, yes I, am the one
who takes care of your sins—that’s what I do.
I don’t keep a list of your sins.
26-28 “So, make your case against me. Let’s have this out.
Make your arguments. Prove you’re in the right.
Your original ancestor started the sinning,
and everyone since has joined in.
That’s why I had to disqualify the Temple leaders,
repudiate Jacob and discredit Israel.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Read: John 14:15-21
The Spirit of Truth
“If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.
21 “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”
INSIGHT:
Imagine how the disciples must have felt when the Master they had followed for three and a half years said He was going away. How could they cope with the loss of their Teacher, the one from whom flowed the words of life? But Jesus said He would not leave them alone, for He would send them “another Helper” (John 14:16 nkjv) who would be with them forever. The word translated “Helper” is paraclete, which means “encourager, exhorter, comforter, and intercessor.” It denotes someone who is called alongside to help. The Spirit of Christ would now dwell within them and be their helper and comforter.
Your Journey
By Bill Crowder
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18
I grew up in the rebellious 1960s and turned my back on religion. I had attended church all my life but didn’t come to faith until my early twenties after a terrible accident. Since that time, I have spent my adult years telling others of Jesus’s love for us. It has been a journey.
Certainly “a journey” describes life in this broken world. On the way we encounter mountains and valleys, rivers and plains, crowded highways and lonely roads—highs and lows, joys and sorrows, conflict and loss, heartache and solitude. We can’t see the road ahead, so we must take it as it comes, not as we wish it would be.
Loving Lord, thank You that You not only know the path I take, You walk it with me.
The follower of Christ, however, never faces this journey alone. The Scriptures remind us of the constant presence of God. There is nowhere we can go that He is not there (Ps. 139:7–12). He will never leave us or forsake us (Deut. 31:6; Heb. 13:5). Jesus, after promising to send the Holy Spirit, told His disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).
The challenges and opportunities we face on our journey can be met confidently, for God has promised us His never-failing presence.
Loving Lord, thank You that You not only know the path I take, You walk it with me. Help me to rely on Your presence, help, and wisdom every day of my journey through life.
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Is God’s Will My Will?
This is the will of God, your sanctification… —1 Thessalonians 4:3
Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.
All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
Bible in One Year: Isaiah 59-61; 2 Thessalonians 3
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 20, 2016
A Blueprint For The Overwhelming - #7769
The idea of building a Headquarters as a base for our ministry's mission sounded exciting – and overwhelming. It took amazing financial miracles and the help of people who know a lot more than I do. I did some building with Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs when I was little, but apparently that experience did not prepare me adequately for the first real building project of my life. An architect drew the blueprint for what we needed the Headquarters to be, and that was great. But there I stood with this very big, very detailed drawing – having no idea of where to start with what was on that paper. Thank God for the contractor that He brought into our lives! He knew what to do!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Blueprint For The Overwhelming."
I didn't know what to do with what was in front of me, but the contractor did! So, I put that blueprint in the hands of someone who knew exactly what to do with what looked totally overwhelming to me. It didn't look overwhelming to him. That kind of handoff was what literally saved King Hezekiah and the Jewish people centuries ago in our word for today from the Word of God. And it's what can turn the thing that's overwhelming you right now into a miracle you'll never forget.
We join the Hezekiah story in Isaiah 36, beginning with verse 4, as the massive army of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, is rolling across the Middle East, conquering city after city. Jerusalem is next on his "conquest" list. The message that comes to King Hezekiah and his people is: "Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?" Talk about intimidating! This is a juggernaut; a seemingly unstoppable army, marching right toward you.
Hezekiah receives a letter calling for his surrender, reminding him that no other people has been able to stop this army. The Bible says, "Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 'O Lord Almighty, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from His hand so that all the kingdoms on earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God." That day the angel of the Lord put to death 185,000 Assyrians. The next morning, where yesterday the Jews had seen an overwhelming army, today all they saw was dead bodies.
There is a powerful blueprint here for how to handle what looks like it's going to overwhelm you. You do what I did with that building project that was way beyond anything I could do. You put it in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it. You "spread it out before the Lord." I have actually done that physically with bills that were overwhelming our ministry. And Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides, came through big-time. You may need to lay a picture of someone you love before the Lord – someone who just seems like a spiritual "Mission Impossible". Maybe it's a letter or a medical report, an opportunity or a threat that you need to spread out before Him.
Pray as Hezekiah did, focusing not on the size of the challenge, but on the size of your God. Celebrate the fact that your God is Lord over everything that's looming so large in your life. The shadow of your great God will literally shrink the size of your giants!
Let go of the thing that's overwhelming you. What is it doing in your little hands anyway? Go to the Throne Room from which the galaxies are governed and take another look at the God you belong to. You've looked at and listened to that invading army long enough. It's time you placed that whole army in God's hands. Spread it all out before the Lord and leave it there. What you couldn't do in 50 years, your God can do in a day!
