Max Lucado Daily: SIN’S REALITY
David dedicated a season of his life to making stupid, idiotic, godless decisions. Yes, David! King David! The man after God’s own heart suppressed his wrongdoing and paid a steep price for doing so. He later described it this way: “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. . .my strength evaporated like water in the summer heat” (Psalm 32:3-4 NLT).
Sin’s reality replaced sin’s euphoria. He finally prayed, “LORD, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior” (Psalm 38:21-22 NIV). Bury misbehavior and expect pain—period! You cannot escape the misery is creates, unless you pray as David did: “Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.” Then, grace will come.
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 54
Spread Out! Think Big!
“Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby.
Fill the air with song, you who’ve never experienced childbirth!
You’re ending up with far more children
than all those childbearing women.” God says so!
“Clear lots of ground for your tents!
Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!
Use plenty of rope,
drive the tent pegs deep.
You’re going to need lots of elbow room
for your growing family.
You’re going to take over whole nations;
you’re going to resettle abandoned cities.
Don’t be afraid—you’re not going to be embarrassed.
Don’t hold back—you’re not going to come up short.
You’ll forget all about the humiliations of your youth,
and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.
For your Maker is your bridegroom,
his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
Your Redeemer is The Holy of Israel,
known as God of the whole earth.
You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief,
and God welcomed you back,
Like a woman married young
and then left,” says your God.
7-8 Your Redeemer God says:
“I left you, but only for a moment.
Now, with enormous compassion, I’m bringing you back.
In an outburst of anger I turned my back on you—
but only for a moment.
It’s with lasting love
that I’m tenderly caring for you.
9-10 “This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:
I promised then that the waters of Noah
would never again flood the earth.
I’m promising now no more anger,
no more dressing you down.
For even if the mountains walk away
and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won’t walk away from you,
my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart.”
The God who has compassion on you says so.
11-17 “Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:
I’m about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
Lay your foundations with sapphires,
construct your towers with rubies,
Your gates with jewels,
and all your walls with precious stones.
All your children will have God for their teacher—
what a mentor for your children!
You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,
far from any trouble—nothing to fear!
far from terror—it won’t even come close!
If anyone attacks you,
don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them,
And if any should attack,
nothing will come of it.
I create the blacksmith
who fires up his forge
and makes a weapon designed to kill.
I also create the destroyer—
but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged.
Any accuser who takes you to court
will be dismissed as a liar.
This is what God’s servants can expect.
I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.”
God’s Decree.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, November 04, 2016
Read: John 18:10–14, 36–37
Just then Simon Peter, who was carrying a sword, pulled it from its sheath and struck the Chief Priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. Malchus was the servant’s name.
11 Jesus ordered Peter, “Put back your sword. Do you think for a minute I’m not going to drink this cup the Father gave me?”
12-14 Then the Roman soldiers under their commander, joined by the Jewish police, seized Jesus and tied him up. They took him first to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the Chief Priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people.
John 18:36-37The Message (MSG)
36 “My kingdom,” said Jesus, “doesn’t consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king.”
37 Then Pilate said, “So, are you a king or not?”
Jesus answered, “You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice.”
INSIGHT:
At Gethsemane Jesus restrained and conquered (or overcame) His own natural inclinations that wished He would not have to undergo the excruciating agony of crucifixion (Luke 22:42). Restraint is not always a high priority in our lives, but we all need help to overcome our natural inclinations. One aspect of the Spirit’s control over us, according to Galatians 5:23, is self-control. Peter tended to be an “open-mouth-insert-foot” kind of guy (Matt. 16:22; 17:4–5). And on impulse he cut off an opponent’s ear (John 18:10). Even as a stallion must be harnessed to do its master’s bidding, so Peter had a lesson to teach us about the value of restraint.
Strong Conqueror
By Tim Gustafson
My kingdom is from another place. John 18:36
Most of us hope for good government. We vote, we serve, and we speak out for causes we believe are fair and just. But political solutions remain powerless to change the condition of our hearts.
Many of Jesus’s followers anticipated a Messiah who would bring a vigorous political response to Rome and its heavy-handed oppression. Peter was no exception. When Roman soldiers came to arrest Christ, Peter drew his sword and took a swing at the head of the high priest’s servant, lopping off his ear in the process.
Real restraint is not weakness, for it arises out of genuine strength.
Jesus halted Peter’s one-man war, saying, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11). Hours later, Jesus would tell Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders” (v. 36).
The Lord’s restraint in that moment, as His life hung in the balance, astonishes us when we ponder the scope of His mission. On a future day, He will lead the armies of heaven into battle. John wrote, “With justice he judges and wages war” (Rev. 19:11).
But as He endured the ordeal of His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, Jesus kept His Father’s will in view. By embracing death on the cross, He set in motion a chain of events that truly transforms hearts. And in the process, our Strong Conqueror defeated death itself.
Father, how prone I am to reacting quickly rather than wisely. Show me Your will for my life so that I will purposefully choose the path You have for me.
Real restraint is not weakness, for it arises out of genuine strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, November 04, 2016
The Authority of Truth
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. —James 4:8
It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual— you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.
When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood— work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back. When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. “Come to Me…” (Matthew 11:28). His word come means “to act.” Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, November 04, 2016
Why There Are Desperate Housewives - #7780
Some years ago there was a, well, then a new TV show, and I was surprised that it caught on. The title was Desperate Housewives, and it actually sky-rocketed into being a hit its very first season. I thought, "How come a show named Desperate Housewives would be so popular?" You wonder if there are a lot of women that could relate to that title. Maybe in reality there are more than a few of those desperate housewives.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why There Are Desperate Housewives."
Proverbs 31 in the Bible presents God's idea of an awesome woman. She's not a desperate housewife. In fact, she's a wife who's strong, secure and satisfied. She's really making a difference for her family and her community. And one of the big reasons she's this kind of woman is revealed in our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 31:23-24. The Bible says: "Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. (Here's what he tells her.) 'Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.'"
No wonder this is God's "Wonder Woman." She's married to a man who makes her feel wonderful! I'm guessing the reason her children praise her is because they've heard their dad treat their mom that way.
If we look at this from the flip side, we could surmise that one reason some wives are desperate or discouraged or negative is a husband who is failing them in his most basic responsibility – to be a provider. Yes, he's supposed to supply for his wife materially, and most guys do that. But that's the easy part. What a woman needs most from her man is AAA treatment; meeting her need for affection, for attention, for affirmation.
So each married man should be giving himself a little three-question test about how he treats his wife. First, am I loving her in the ways that make her feel loved? Secondly, am I offering her my exclusive attention on a regular basis? Thirdly, am I building her confidence by frequently praising her for specific strengths that I see in her? The man who can answer "yes" to those questions is really a man – a provider for his woman's greatest needs.
Ephesians 5 lays out a beautiful picture of how a husband and wife are to love and support each other. In the verses that precede that marriage blueprint, God says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building others up" (Ephesians 4:29). For Husbanding 101, this means lose the comments that tear your bride down; the critical comments, the insults, and the putdowns.
Then, Ephesians 5:1 tells us to "live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us." That's love demonstrated, not just with words and flowers and cards – although those aren't bad ideas – but with sacrifice. Pitching in to help her when you're really tired, listening to her heart when you're all listened out, and putting her needs ahead of your needs. God reaffirms that a few verses later when He says, "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her."
One day at an altar, you pledged to cherish and protect and love and care for that woman you were marrying and she believed you. God was there as a witness, and He believed you. He entrusted her life into your hands. She entrusted her life and her happiness into your hands. The manliest thing you'll ever do is to keep those promises – provide for her deepest needs.
She won't be a desperate housewife. She will be a woman who knows that she's safe, knows she's treasured, and knows she's loved. And she'll live like it because of a husband who was, in God's eyes and her eyes, a real man.
