Max Lucado Daily: HOLY ANGER
I was in an emergency room late one night. Victims of Satan filled the halls. A child—puffy, swollen eyes, beaten by her father. A woman—bruised cheeks, bloody nose. “My boyfriend got drunk and hit me,” she said, weeping.
Jesus saw victims of Satan too. He saw a leper one day…fingers gnarled…skin ulcerated…face disfigured. He got indignant. A holy anger, a compassionate disgust…and it moved him to action. I’m convinced that the same Satan stalks today, causing hunger, confusion in the Mideast, the apathy in Christ’s church. And Satan giggles among the dying.
Oh, dear Father, May we never grow so holy, may we never be so mature, may we never be so religious, that we see the footprints of Satan and stay calm.
From God is With You Every Day
Romans 11:19-36
It’s certainly possible to say, “Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!” Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you’re on the tree is because your graft “took” when you believed, and because you’re connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don’t get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green.
21-22 If God didn’t think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn’t give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don’t presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you’re out of there.
23-24 And don’t get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don’t persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn’t going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you’re in the tree, and hope for the best for the others.
A Complete Israel
25-29 I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what’s going on and arrogantly assume that you’re royalty and they’re just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that’s not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it’s all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written,
A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion;
he’ll clean house in Jacob.
And this is my commitment to my people:
removal of their sins.
From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God’s enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God’s overall purpose, they remain God’s oldest friends. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.
30-32 There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in.
33-36 Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out.
Is there anyone around who can explain God?
Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?
Anyone who has done him such a huge favor
that God has to ask his advice?
Everything comes from him;
Everything happens through him;
Everything ends up in him.
Always glory! Always praise!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, November 14, 2016
Read: Romans 15:1–7
Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”
3-6 That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!
7-13 So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Jesus, staying true to God’s purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God. Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do! For instance:
Then I’ll join outsiders in a hymn-sing;
I’ll sing to your name!
And this one:
Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!
And again:
People of all nations, celebrate God!
All colors and races, give hearty praise!
And Isaiah’s word:
There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse,
breaking through the earth and growing tree tall,
Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope!
Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!
INSIGHT:
The Roman believers were in need of building on the sense of unity they enjoyed. Our reading for today concludes on an essential ingredient in interpersonal relationships, that of acceptance. “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Certainly a subtle sensing of rejection will inhibit all healthy relationships. We are to accept others as Christ has accepted us
All Together Now
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
With one mind and one voice . . . glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:6
While Nicholas Taylor was boarding a train in Perth, Australia, his leg became wedged in the gap between the platform and a commuter car. When safety officials could not free him, they coordinated the efforts of nearly 50 passengers who lined up and, on the count of three, pushed against the train. Working in unison, they shifted the weight just enough to free Taylor’s leg.
The apostle Paul recognized the power of Christians working together in many of his letters to the early churches. He urged the Roman believers to accept each other the way Christ had accepted them and said, “[May God] give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:5–6).
Our unity comes from our union with Christ.
Unity with other believers enables us to broadcast God’s greatness and also helps us to endure persecution. Knowing that the Philippians would pay a price for their faith, Paul encouraged them to strive “together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you” (Phil. 1:27–28).
Satan loves to divide and conquer, but his efforts fail when, with God’s help, we “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).
Dear God, please let Christians everywhere experience the blessing of unity in You. Remind us of what we have in common: one hope, one faith, and one Lord—Jesus Christ.
Our unity comes from our union with Christ.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 14, 2016
Discovering Divine Design
As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me… —Genesis 24:27
We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. “…the Lord led me…” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.
Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 14, 2016
The Master Heart Surgeon - #7786
I met this 87-year-old man one day who had been given a whole new lease on life. His heart arteries were so clogged that his health was deteriorating rapidly. But then the heart surgeon went to work on him and gave him a quadruple heart bypass. In a sense, the doctor created four new arteries and plugged them into this man's heart so his heart could once again get the blood it needs when it needs it. I mean it's totally amazing the difference a skilled heart surgeon can make.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Master Heart Surgeon."
If God was a doctor, I kind of think He'd be a heart specialist. Actually, He is a heart specialist. I mean, look at how He has changed my heart and your heart. And you may be facing a situation right now that will only change for the better if someone's heart changes. There may be someone out there whose heart, whose attitude, is standing in the way of something you believe God wants done. It's time for heart surgery and one of the most powerful prayers you can learn to pray.
God's heart-changing work is graphically illustrated in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Ezra 1 beginning in verse 1. Now God's people, the Jews, have been in captivity for 70 years, but now it's time for them to go home and build God's temple in God's land. Problem: they are under the control of a pagan king named Cyrus, who just happens to be the most powerful man on earth at that time. Actually, not a problem-for God, that is.
Here's what our word for today says. "In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord...the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout his realm." Now the proclamation said this. "The Lord...has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah." Wait a minute! This is amazing! This is a pagan king. Who would have guessed? "Any of His people among you-may His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem to Judah and build the temple of the Lord." He's going, "You guys, it's okay with me. You go home. I want to be a part of you building the temple of the Lord." He didn't even believe in Him as far as we know. Isn't that amazing?
God wants something done. A king stands in the way. God changes his heart. Later in this same book there is another pagan king in power who stands in the way. But Ezra tells us, "The Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king...so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God" (Ezra 6:22).
Now, in many of life's situations there is some "king". You know, a king person-the gatekeeper. That's the one whose permission is needed. That's the one who's in a position to decide whether this is a yes or no. And here's what God tells us about those people in Proverbs 21:1. I love this. "The king's heart" (whoever is the most powerful guy around) "is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases." Even if he's far from God, even if he's the most powerful man in the world.
So one of the most powerful prayers you can pray is, "Lord, change her heart. Change his heart." Through fervent, consistent prayer, you just focus all of God's unlimited power on the heart of the "king" in your situation. Like a skilled heart surgeon, God has the ability to open up a clogged heart-to move an unmovable heart, to change that stubborn heart. In fact, in Ezekiel 36:26 God says that "He will take that heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh and put a new spirit within us." What a promise!
So exercise the authority you have in prayer-the authority to enter the throne room from which billions of galaxies are governed and aim God's power at one heart on earth. It is amazing the difference the Master Heart Surgeon can make when He changes a heart that no one on earth could move.
