Max Lucado Daily: CHOSEN VESSELS
God’s chosen vessels aren’t always gleaming and golden. They may be tarnished or cracked, broken or even discarded. They may be a Saul driven by anger, motivated to hurt. Saul was eager to root out and persecute the early Christians. But God saw possibilities in Saul and sent Ananias to teach and minister to him. What will you do when God shows you your Saul? He’s gone too far. She’s too hard. Too addicted. Too old. No one gives your Saul a prayer.
But you’re beginning to realize that maybe God is at work behind the scenes. You begin to believe. Don’t resist these thoughts. No one believes in people more than Jesus does. Don’t give up. Tell your Saul about Jesus, and pray. And remember this: God never sends you where he hasn’t already been. By the time you reach your Saul, who knows what you’ll find.
From God is With You Every Day
Hosea 7
Despite All the Signs, Israel Ignores God
“Every time I gave Israel a fresh start,
wiped the slate clean and got them going again,
Ephraim soon filled the slate with new sins,
the treachery of Samaria written out in bold print.
Two-faced and double-tongued,
they steal you blind, pick you clean.
It never crosses their mind
that I keep account of their every crime.
They’re mud-spattered head to toe with the residue of sin.
I see who they are and what they’ve done.
3-7 “They entertain the king with their evil circus,
delight the princes with their acrobatic lies.
They’re a bunch of overheated adulterers,
like an oven that holds its heat
From the kneading of the dough
to the rising of the bread.
On the royal holiday the princes get drunk
on wine and the frenzy of the mocking mob.
They’re like wood stoves,
red-hot with lust.
Through the night their passion is banked;
in the morning it blazes up, flames hungrily licking.
Murderous and volcanic,
they incinerate their rulers.
Their kings fall one by one,
and no one pays any attention to me.
8-10 “Ephraim mingles with the pagans, dissipating himself.
Ephraim is half-baked.
Strangers suck him dry
but he doesn’t even notice.
His hair has turned gray—
he doesn’t notice.
Bloated by arrogance, big as a house,
Israel’s a public disgrace.
Israel lumbers along oblivious to God,
despite all the signs, ignoring God.
11-16 “Ephraim is bird-brained,
mindless, clueless,
First chirping after Egypt,
then fluttering after Assyria.
I’ll throw my net over them. I’ll clip their wings.
I’ll teach them to mind me!
Doom! They’ve run away from home.
Now they’re really in trouble! They’ve defied me.
And I’m supposed to help them
while they feed me a line of lies?
Instead of crying out to me in heartfelt prayer,
they whoop it up in bed with their whores,
Gash themselves bloody in their sex-and-religion orgies,
but turn their backs on me.
I’m the one who gave them good minds and healthy bodies,
and how am I repaid? With evil scheming!
They turn, but not to me—
turn here, then there, like a weather vane.
Their rulers will be cut down, murdered—
just deserts for their mocking blasphemies.
And the final sentence?
Ridicule in the court of world opinion.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Read: Psalm 119:9–16
How can a young person live a clean life?
By carefully reading the map of your Word.
I’m single-minded in pursuit of you;
don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.
I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart
so I won’t sin myself bankrupt.
Be blessed, God;
train me in your ways of wise living.
I’ll transfer to my lips
all the counsel that comes from your mouth;
I delight far more in what you tell me about living
than in gathering a pile of riches.
I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you,
I attentively watch how you’ve done it.
I relish everything you’ve told me of life,
I won’t forget a word of it.
INSIGHT:
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible. Although the author is not named, most scholars say David composed it because the psalm sounds Davidic in tone and expression and is consistent with David’s experiences. The focus of its 176 verses is God and His Word. God is mentioned in every verse, while the entire psalm celebrates the Scriptures and speaks of their priority and sufficiency in the daily life of the believer, using a wide variety of words to capture the different dimensions of God’s Word in our lives. Scripture is described as “law” (vv. 1, 7), “statutes” (vv. 2, 14), “ways” (vv. 3, 15), “precepts” (vv. 4, 15), “decrees” (vv. 5, 8, 12, 16), “commandments” (vv. 6, 10), and “word” (vv. 9, 11, 16).
I’m Rich!
By David McCasland
I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. Psalm 119:14
Perhaps you’ve seen the TV ad in which a person answers the door and finds someone who hands over a check for an enormous amount of money. Then the amazed recipient begins shouting, dancing, jumping, and hugging everyone in sight. “I won! I’m rich! I can’t believe it! My problems are solved!” Striking it rich evokes a great emotional response.
In Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, we find this remarkable statement: “I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches” (v. 14). What a comparison! Obeying God’s instructions for living can be just as exhilarating as receiving a fortune! Verse 16 repeats this refrain as the psalmist expresses grateful gladness for the Lord’s commands. “I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.”
Gratitude is both an attitude and a choice.
But what if we don’t feel that way? How can delighting in God’s instructions for living be just as exhilarating as receiving a fortune? It all begins with gratitude, which is both an attitude and a choice. We pay attention to what we value, so we begin by expressing our gratitude for those gifts of God that nourish our souls. We ask Him to open our eyes to see the storehouse of wisdom, knowledge, and peace He has given us in His Word.
As our love for Jesus grows each day, we indeed strike it rich!
Dear Father, open our eyes that we may see wonderful things in Your law. Thank You that Your instructions give wise advice.
Rich treasures of God’s truth are waiting to be discovered in His Word.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
The Supremacy of Jesus Christ
He will glorify Me… —John 16:14
The holiness movements of today have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them. There is nothing about them that needs the death of Jesus Christ. All that is required is a pious atmosphere, prayer, and devotion. This type of experience is not supernatural nor miraculous. It did not cost the sufferings of God, nor is it stained with “the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11). It is not marked or sealed by the Holy Spirit as being genuine, and it has no visual sign that causes people to exclaim with awe and wonder, “That is the work of God Almighty!” Yet the New Testament is about the work of God and nothing else.
The New Testament example of the Christian experience is that of a personal, passionate devotion to the Person of Jesus Christ. Every other kind of so-called Christian experience is detached from the Person of Jesus. There is no regeneration— no being born again into the kingdom in which Christ lives and reigns supreme. There is only the idea that He is our pattern. In the New Testament Jesus Christ is the Savior long before He is the pattern. Today He is being portrayed as the figurehead of a religion— a mere example. He is that, but He is infinitely more. He is salvation itself; He is the gospel of God!
Jesus said, “…when He, the Spirit of truth, has come,…He will glorify Me…” (John 16:13-14). When I commit myself to the revealed truth of the New Testament, I receive from God the gift of the Holy Spirit, who then begins interpreting to me what Jesus did. The Spirit of God does in me internally all that Jesus Christ did for me externally.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them. Shade of His Hand, 1216 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
One Hand Short Of Heaven - #7797
It might have been the scariest moment of my life. I was only ten years old, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I was with my friends in Lake Michigan. We started out just wading, but they kept getting deeper – until the lake bottom dropped off sharply. We started swimming. I didn't know how, and I was too embarrassed to tell them. And I started taking on water fast. I mean, I went under once, I went under twice, and I was desperately thrashing around. As for my buddies, they thought I was just clowning around. I wasn't! I was drinking the lake. I could see that water burying me there like it was yesterday, and honestly, I was almost a goner. And then he came – the man from the shore who saw my predicament and he jumped in to do something about it. He had come to rescue me. I grabbed him with both hands. I hung onto him as if he were my only hope, because He was.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Hand Short Of Heaven."
As I've studied the Bible, I've learned that what happened to me that day at the lake is a picture of another life-or-death situation and the rescue on which a life depends. In this case, the life-or-death situation involves the entire human race. So, it's about you and me.
The Bible reveals our true spiritual condition in hopes that we'll recognize it and take the only action that will save our souls. God's book says, "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2)...that we are "without God and without hope in this world" (Ephesians 2:12)... and that we are "dead our sins."
Sin is so much more than just breaking somebody's religious rules. It's defying Almighty God by ignoring His rule over our lives and doing what we want instead. It's ultimate arrogance. It's defiant rebellion against the One to whom we owe our existence. And it's all of us; even the most religious person listening today. We differ only in the degree of our rebellion against our Creator, not in the reality of that rebellion or in its awful, eternal consequences.
We are that little guy, drowning, with no hope of saving ourselves. Our only hope of avoiding certain death is the same as it was for me that day – a rescuer. And it's at that point that Jesus Christ comes off the pages of the history books and becomes a deeply personal issue for you and me. He saw we were dying, He left heaven's shore, and He jumped in to save us at the cost of His own life when He gave His life in exchange for ours on a cross.
Our word for today from the Word of God, in John 3:18, spells out the difference between those who will be lost and those who will be rescued: "Whoever believes in Him (that's Jesus) is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in Him stands condemned already because He does not believe in the name of God's one and only Son."
It isn't what you do with some religion or some set of beliefs. It all comes down to what you do with Jesus – whether or not you believe in Him. In the original Greek word that's translated as "believe," it means to put your total trust in Jesus, to hold onto Him like a drowning person would hang onto his rescuer. I know about that. And take it from me, that's holding onto Him with both hands.
Some people miss Him because they try to grab Jesus with just one hand – because there's something else in the other hand they don't want to let go of. A sin they don't want to forsake, a person, a pleasure, or an escape from their problems. But that's what the Bible calls "another god." And you can't hold Jesus with one hand and some junk He died for in the other. Believing in Jesus is grabbing Him with both hands, turning from, abandoning whatever else has been your hope. Maybe you've tried to turn to Jesus without turning from your sin, that other hope. Well, it's got to be a two-hand faith, grabbing Jesus with all your heart and both your hands.
Have you ever taken that life-saving step? It's time! Tell Him right now. He's come to where you are, and He's reaching for you with both hands – nail-scarred hands. It's time you grabbed Him with both of yours.
I'm going to help you do that. It's what our website's all about. I invite you to go there right now as soon as you can today – ANewStory.com. Please take a few minutes. It could change everything.
Grabbing Jesus with one hand or with both hands; it's the difference between being saved and being lost.
