Max Lucado Daily: UNENDING INTERCESSION
Jesus is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us (Romans 8:34). In the presence of God, in defiance of Satan, Jesus Christ rises to your defense. He takes on the role of a priest.
The Book of Hebrews tells us, “Since we have a great priest over God’s house, let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience” (Hebrews 10:21-22 NCV). A clean conscience. A clean record. A clean heart. Free from accusation. Free from condemnation. Not just for our past mistakes but also for our future ones.
“Since he will live forever, he will always be there to remind God that he has paid for our sins with his blood” (Hebrews 7:25 TLB). Christ offers unending intercession on your behalf.
From God is With You Every Day
Hosea 2
“Rename your brothers ‘God’s Somebody.’
Rename your sisters ‘All Mercy.’
Wild Weekends and Unholy Holidays
2-13 “Haul your mother into court. Accuse her!
She’s no longer my wife.
I’m no longer her husband.
Tell her to quit dressing like a whore,
displaying her breasts for sale.
If she refuses, I’ll rip off her clothes
and expose her, naked as a newborn.
I’ll turn her skin into dried-out leather,
her body into a badlands landscape,
a rack of bones in the desert.
I’ll have nothing to do with her children,
born one and all in a whorehouse.
Face it: Your mother’s been a whore,
bringing bastard children into the world.
She said, ‘I’m off to see my lovers!
They’ll wine and dine me,
Dress and caress me,
perfume and adorn me!’
But I’ll fix her: I’ll dump her in a field of thistles,
then lose her in a dead-end alley.
She’ll go on the hunt for her lovers
but not bring down a single one.
She’ll look high and low
but won’t find a one. Then she’ll say,
‘I’m going back to my husband, the one I started out with.
That was a better life by far than this one.’
She didn’t know that it was I all along
who wined and dined and adorned her,
That I was the one who dressed her up
in the big-city fashions and jewelry
that she wasted on wild Baal-orgies.
I’m about to bring her up short: No more wining and dining!
Silk lingerie and gowns are a thing of the past.
I’ll expose her genitals to the public.
All her fly-by-night lovers will be helpless to help her.
Party time is over. I’m calling a halt to the whole business,
her wild weekends and unholy holidays.
I’ll wreck her sumptuous gardens and ornamental fountains,
of which she bragged, ‘Whoring paid for all this!’
They will soon be dumping grounds for garbage,
feeding grounds for stray dogs and cats.
I’ll make her pay for her indulgence in promiscuous religion—
all that sensuous Baal worship
And all the promiscuous sex that went with it,
stalking her lovers, dressed to kill,
And not a thought for me.”
God’s Message!
To Start All Over Again
14-15 “And now, here’s what I’m going to do:
I’m going to start all over again.
I’m taking her back out into the wilderness
where we had our first date, and I’ll court her.
I’ll give her bouquets of roses.
I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope.
She’ll respond like she did as a young girl,
those days when she was fresh out of Egypt.
16-20 “At that time”—this is God’s Message still—
“you’ll address me, ‘Dear husband!’
Never again will you address me,
‘My slave-master!’
I’ll wash your mouth out with soap,
get rid of all the dirty false-god names,
not so much as a whisper of those names again.
At the same time I’ll make a peace treaty between you
and wild animals and birds and reptiles,
And get rid of all weapons of war.
Think of it! Safe from beasts and bullies!
And then I’ll marry you for good—forever!
I’ll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness.
Yes, I’ll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go.
You’ll know me, God, for who I really am.
21-23 “On the very same day, I’ll answer”—this is God’s Message—
“I’ll answer the sky, sky will answer earth,
Earth will answer grain and wine and olive oil,
and they’ll all answer Jezreel.
I’ll plant her in the good earth.
I’ll have mercy on No-Mercy.
I’ll say to Nobody, ‘You’re my dear Somebody,’
and he’ll say ‘You’re my God!’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Read: Philippians 2:1–11
He Took on the Status of a Slave
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
INSIGHT:
In today’s reading, we see Paul’s eloquent treatment of how God became human. Jesus Christ had the attributes of God yet took on human flesh to become a servant. This self-sacrificial mission found its ultimate expression in Jesus’s death on the cross to provide salvation for all who believe in Him as Savior and Lord. C. S. Lewis wrote, “The Son of God became man so that men might become sons of God.”
Fame and Humility
By Cindy Hess Kasper
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Philippians 2:8
Many of us are obsessed with fame—either with being famous ourselves or with following every detail of famous people’s lives. International book or film tours. Late-night show appearances. Millions of followers on Twitter.
In a recent study in the US, researchers ranked the names of famous individuals using a specially developed algorithm that scoured the Internet. Jesus topped the list as the most famous person in history.
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Philippians 2:8
Yet Jesus was never concerned about obtaining celebrity status. When He was here on earth, He never sought fame (Matt. 9:30; John 6:15)—although fame found Him all the same as news about Him quickly traveled throughout the region of Galilee (Mark 1:28; Luke 4:37).
Wherever Jesus went, crowds soon gathered. The miracles He performed drew people to Him. But when they tried to make Him a king by force, He slipped away by Himself (John 6:15). United in purpose with His Father, He repeatedly deferred to the Father’s will and timing (4:34; 8:29; 12:23). “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8).
Fame was never Jesus’s goal. His purpose was simple. As the Son of God, He humbly, obediently, and voluntarily offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins.
You are to be celebrated, Lord, above all others. You have been highly exalted and given a name that is above every name. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that You are Lord.
Jesus came not to be famous, but to humbly offer Himself as the sacrifice for our sins.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
The Distraction of Contempt
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. —Psalm 123:3
What we must beware of is not damage to our belief in God but damage to our Christian disposition or state of mind. “Take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously” (Malachi 2:16). Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God. Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives.
Beware of “the cares of this world…” (Mark 4:19). They are the very things that produce the wrong attitudes in our soul. It is incredible what enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention away from God. Refuse to be swamped by “the cares of this world.”
Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.
When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.
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
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
We're all broken and we're covering it up. It's just too risky to come out from behind that mask, the wall that we've put up to keep people out, because we don't really want to see what's behind it. For sure we don't want anyone else to see it. We keep it until someone else takes their mask off; speaking transparently from their own brokenness. In essence, they give us permission to face our own hurt, to face our own darkness. Remember, Jesus said, "You will know the truth and the truth will scare you to death." No, He didn't say that. He said, "set you free" (John 8:32).
I watched it happen on 11 pain-and-poverty-hardened Indian reservations this past summer. I've seen it happen when I've opened up about my very broken heart; broken by the sudden loss of my Karen a few months ago. She was the irreplaceable love of my life. And I have seen the singular power of brokenness to break through to the hardest closed hearts, including some who may be very close to us. Because an open heart opens hearts.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beautiful Brokenness."
These amazing young people I traveled with this past summer, 48 Native Americans bringing the hope they have found to some hope-starved places where the walls frankly are high around these wounded hearts of reservation young people. Abuse, anger, addictions, all the dying around them; man, they try to protect themselves by closing down. Nobody's going to get in.
These team members get that. They've lived it. Their stories would break your heart. Until they get to the turning point - Jesus. That brown-skinned, tribal man whose death for their sins and whose death-beating resurrection power changed everything. Because of Him, things just don't have to be the way they've always been. And that's called hope.
Through them, I was an eye witness to watching hundreds of Native young people do what Native young people don't do. They stepped out to declare they were choosing Jesus. What broke through where nothing has? It was their stories, in one-on-one conversations, from center court speaking - often with tears - about the darkest, most personal moments of their lives so they could tell about their Jesus.
And they broke through the walls, again and again, because they brought Jesus, wrapped in their own brokenness because that's how He came. Listen to the Bible's words in our word for today in the Word of God in Isaiah 52:14, and then out of chapter 53, verses 3-5. "He was rejected, a man of sorrows, despised, afflicted, disfigured, pierced, crushed." A broken Savior for broken people like me.
At our national conference for Native young people, I told about Jesus through my freshly broken heart. You know, when there was an opportunity for those young people to choose my Jesus, it was the largest response we've ever seen at the conference. Open hearts open hearts!
The walls and masks that we put up to hide our brokenness often cannot be breached by persuasion, debate, even Scripture unless the messenger comes broken with hope to share. A marriage can be saved, a child, a friendship, a soul – if someone is willing to come from behind their mask, their walls and their defenses, and simply let their heart do the talking.
That's when Jesus turns my hurt into hope for someone else. It's how my Jesus – who said He "came to bind up the brokenhearted" – does His life-restoring miracle. He turns my "ashes" into what He calls a "crown of beauty" (Isaiah 61:3).
