Max Lucado Daily: YOU NEED A SAVIOR
If we could save ourselves—why would we need a Savior? Jesus didn’t enter the world to help us save ourselves. He entered the world to save us from ourselves.
As a Boy Scout, I earned a lifesaving merit badge. In fact, the only people I saved were other Boy Scouts who didn’t need to be saved. During training I would rescue other trainees. We took turns saving each other. But since we weren’t really drowning, we resisted being rescued. “Stop kicking and let me save you,” I’d say. It’s impossible to save those who’re trying to save themselves.
You might save yourself from a broken heart or going broke or running out of gas. But you’re not good enough to save yourself from sin. You aren’t strong enough to save yourself from death. You need a Savior. Because of Bethlehem you have one!
From Because of Bethlehem
Micah 4
The Making of God’s People
1-4 But when all is said and done,
God’s Temple on the mountain,
Firmly fixed, will dominate all mountains,
towering above surrounding hills.
People will stream to it
and many nations set out for it,
Saying, “Come, let’s climb God’s mountain.
Let’s go to the Temple of Jacob’s God.
He will teach us how to live.
We’ll know how to live God’s way.”
True teaching will issue from Zion,
God’s revelation from Jerusalem.
He’ll establish justice in the rabble of nations
and settle disputes in faraway places.
They’ll trade in their swords for shovels,
their spears for rakes and hoes.
Nations will quit fighting each other,
quit learning how to kill one another.
Each man will sit under his own shade tree,
each woman in safety will tend her own garden.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so,
and he means what he says.
5 Meanwhile, all the other people live however they wish,
picking and choosing their gods.
But we live honoring God,
and we’re loyal to our God forever and ever.
6-7 “On that great day,” God says,
“I will round up all the hurt and homeless,
everyone I have bruised or banished.
I will transform the battered into a company of the elite.
I will make a strong nation out of the long lost,
A showcase exhibit of God’s rule in action,
as I rule from Mount Zion, from here to eternity.
8 “And you stragglers around Jerusalem,
eking out a living in shantytowns:
The glory that once was will be again.
Jerusalem’s daughter will be the kingdom center.”
9-10 So why the doomsday hysterics?
You still have a king, don’t you?
But maybe he’s not doing his job
and you’re panicked like a woman in labor.
Well, go ahead—twist and scream, Daughter Jerusalem.
You are like a woman in childbirth.
You’ll soon be out of the city, on your way
and camping in the open country.
And then you’ll arrive in Babylon.
What you lost in Jerusalem will be found in Babylon.
God will give you new life again.
He’ll redeem you from your enemies.
11-12 But for right now, they’re ganged up against you,
many godless peoples, saying,
“Kick her when she’s down! Violate her!
We want to see Zion grovel in the dirt.”
These blasphemers have no idea
what God is thinking and doing in this.
They don’t know that this is the making of God’s people,
that they are wheat being threshed, gold being refined.
13 On your feet, Daughter of Zion! Be threshed of chaff,
be refined of dross.
I’m remaking you into a people invincible,
into God’s juggernaut to crush the godless peoples.
You’ll bring their plunder as holy offerings to God,
their wealth to the Master of the earth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Read: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
The Master’s Coming
13-14 And regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don’t want you in the dark any longer. First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.
15-18 And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence—we have the Master’s word on it—that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they’ll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words.
INSIGHT:
After Paul describes Christ’s return in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11, he proceeds to discuss daily living (5:12–24). It is easy to get lost in the intricacies and complexities of biblical prophecy. However, it is all a “revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1). Amid all the trumpeting and reunions, it is “the Lord himself [who] will come down from heaven” (1 Thess. 4:16). Then Christians will be gloriously “like him for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). How does the vision of Christ’s return have an impact on you individually and practically?
One Short Sleep
By David Roper
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8
Henry Durbanville, a Scottish pastor from another era, told the story of an elderly woman in his parish who lived in a remote part of Scotland. She longed to see the city of Edinburgh, but she was afraid to take the journey because of the long, dark tunnel through which the train had to pass to get there.
One day, however, circumstances compelled her to go to Edinburgh, and as the train sped toward the city, her agitation increased. But before the train reached the tunnel, the woman, worn out with worry, fell fast asleep. When she awoke she had already arrived in the city!
I love the life you've give to me, Lord!
It’s possible that some of us will not experience death. If we’re alive when Jesus returns, we will “meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:13–18). But many of us will pass into heaven through death and for some that thought causes great anxiety. We worry that the process of dying will be too difficult to bear.
With the assurance of Jesus as our Savior we can rest in the confidence that when we close our eyes on earth and pass through death, we will open our eyes in God’s presence. “One short sleep past we wake eternally,” John Donne said.
I love the life You’ve given to me, Lord, yet I wonder what it will be like to see You personally. Help me to trust You with the future. I look forward to that day when I meet You.
To see Jesus will be heaven’s greatest joy.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 15, 2016
“Approved to God”
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. —2 Timothy 2:15
If you cannot express yourself well on each of your beliefs, work and study until you can. If you don’t, other people may miss out on the blessings that come from knowing the truth. Strive to re-express a truth of God to yourself clearly and understandably, and God will use that same explanation when you share it with someone else. But you must be willing to go through God’s winepress where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle, experiment, and rehearse your words to express God’s truth clearly. Then the time will come when that very expression will become God’s wine of strength to someone else. But if you are not diligent and say, “I’m not going to study and struggle to express this truth in my own words; I’ll just borrow my words from someone else,” then the words will be of no value to you or to others. Try to state to yourself what you believe to be the absolute truth of God, and you will be allowing God the opportunity to pass it on through you to someone else.
Always make it a practice to stir your own mind thoroughly to think through what you have easily believed. Your position is not really yours until you make it yours through suffering and study. The author or speaker from whom you learn the most is not the one who teaches you something you didn’t know before, but the one who helps you take a truth with which you have quietly struggled, give it expression, and speak it clearly and boldly.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;… The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Living In the 'WOW' Zone - #7809
Our granddaughter was almost three when her parents took her to the place that blew her little mind-Disneyland. She loved Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh and Cinderella, and this was where they live, right? For many months afterward, she continued to talk about the experiences she had there. But it was her first reaction that was the most priceless of all. They got off the tram and walked onto the main street of Disneyland with a castle in front of them and Disney characters greeting them. Her reaction wasn't verbal, so it's a little hard to convey it. But imagine a dark-haired, dark-eyed, round-faced little girl stopped in her tracks with her eyes like saucers, her hands suddenly covering her mouth, and one audible reaction – gasp!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living In the 'WOW' Zone."
Our granddaughter saw a world that literally left her breathless and speechless. That wide-eyed, awe-struck little girl? She's a picture of how you and I should be when we enter the personal presence of Almighty God.
In our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 1:17, John gets to see the living Christ as He is in heaven today. This is the Jesus you depend on, the Jesus you cry out to, the Jesus you worship, the Jesus you claim to serve. It says His eyes are like a blazing fire, His voice is like the sound of Niagara Falls, and His face is shining as bright as our sun. He's overwhelming, and here's what John says, "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead." When John sees Jesus, he just enters the "wow" zone where he can't even stand anymore.
The same thing happened to Joshua. When he saw the Lord outside the walls of Jericho, it says he "...fell facedown to the ground in reverence" (Joshua 5:14). When Simon Peter saw what Jesus could do, it says "he fell at Jesus' knees" (Luke 5:8). When the disciples saw the glory of Christ on a mountain, it says "they fell facedown on the ground." Again and again, powerful, looked-to men are leveled by the greatness of God. Our response should be no less.
This "facedown" thing is all through Scripture. When I look at how many of us seem to take God for granted, seem to feel little or nothing when we pray or spend time in God's Word, I've got to ask, "What happened to us?" What happened is that God has become something we believe in instead of an awesome King that we love and experience. Our study of Him should excite us-not sedate us. But sometimes we know so much about Him, He becomes just theology, just beliefs to us, or just a "genie" to give us what we want, or someone with whom we have a loyal relationship but a lifeless relationship.
But facing up to who God is should bring us to being facedown before Him; sometimes physically facedown-always spiritually facedown. Maybe our first word when we pray should be "wow!" realizing just Who we're with. We are in the personal presence of the Sovereign Lord of 100 billion galaxies, the object of the worship of angels who number ten thousand times ten thousand. The people and beings in heaven are with Him every day, but they are constantly on their knees and on their faces before Him. They can't get over the price the Son of God paid for us. They keep praising the Lamb who was slane. They can't get over Him, and neither should we.
If things in your life seem really big, it's probably because your God is too small. You're dwelling on so much earth-stuff that you're missing the majesty and the breathtakingness of your God. If your Lord's become everyday stuff to you, it's time to stop and let Him overwhelm you again. Think about His blazing glory, His amazing plan, His total control of everything He's made. Think about His inexhaustible, unfathomable love for you. Think about the Prince of Glory hanging on a cross for you and let Him take your breath away.
Let Him get you off your feet and off your seat and on your knees. Let you be facedown before Him, because that is the most powerful position on earth.
