Max Lucado Daily: EVERY HEART A MANGER
When Christ was born, so was our hope! This is why I love Christmas. The event invites us to believe the wildest of promises! He did away with every barrier, fence, sin, bent, debt, and grave. Anything that might keep us from him was demolished.
He only awaits our word to walk through the door. Invite him in. Escort him to the seat of honor, and pull out his chair. Clear the table; clear the calendar. Call the kids and neighbors. Christmas is here. Christ is here. One request from you, and God will do again what he did then. He’ll scatter the night with everlasting light. He’ll be born in you.
Let “Silent Night” be sung! Every heart can be a manger. Every day can be a Christmas. The Christmas miracle—a yearlong celebration!
—Because of Bethlehem!
Acts 23:1-15
Before the High Council
1-3 Paul surveyed the members of the council with a steady gaze, and then said his piece: “Friends, I’ve lived with a clear conscience before God all my life, up to this very moment.” That set the Chief Priest Ananias off. He ordered his aides to slap Paul in the face. Paul shot back, “God will slap you down! What a fake you are! You sit there and judge me by the Law and then break the Law by ordering me slapped around!”
4 The aides were scandalized: “How dare you talk to God’s Chief Priest like that!”
5 Paul acted surprised. “How was I to know he was Chief Priest? He doesn’t act like a Chief Priest. You’re right, the Scripture does say, ‘Don’t speak abusively to a ruler of the people.’ Sorry.”
6 Paul, knowing some of the council was made up of Sadducees and others of Pharisees and how they hated each other, decided to exploit their antagonism: “Friends, I am a stalwart Pharisee from a long line of Pharisees. It’s because of my Pharisee convictions—the hope and resurrection of the dead—that I’ve been hauled into this court.”
7-9 The moment he said this, the council split right down the middle, Pharisees and Sadducees going at each other in heated argument. Sadducees have nothing to do with a resurrection or angels or even a spirit. If they can’t see it, they don’t believe it. Pharisees believe it all. And so a huge and noisy quarrel broke out. Then some of the religion scholars on the Pharisee side shouted down the others: “We don’t find anything wrong with this man! And what if a spirit has spoken to him? Or maybe an angel? What if it turns out we’re fighting against God?”
10 That was fuel on the fire. The quarrel flamed up and became so violent the captain was afraid they would tear Paul apart, limb from limb. He ordered the soldiers to get him out of there and escort him back to the safety of the barracks.
A Plot Against Paul
11 That night the Master appeared to Paul: “It’s going to be all right. Everything is going to turn out for the best. You’ve been a good witness for me here in Jerusalem. Now you’re going to be my witness in Rome!”
12-15 Next day the Jews worked up a plot against Paul. They took a solemn oath that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed him. Over forty of them ritually bound themselves to this murder pact and presented themselves to the high priests and religious leaders. “We’ve bound ourselves by a solemn oath to eat nothing until we have killed Paul. But we need your help. Send a request from the council to the captain to bring Paul back so that you can investigate the charges in more detail. We’ll do the rest. Before he gets anywhere near you, we’ll have killed him. You won’t be involved.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 23, 2016
Read: Psalm 103:1–18
A David Psalm
1-2 O my soul, bless God.
From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless God,
don’t forget a single blessing!
3-5 He forgives your sins—every one.
He heals your diseases—every one.
He redeems you from hell—saves your life!
He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.
He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.
He renews your youth—you’re always young in his presence.
6-18 God makes everything come out right;
he puts victims back on their feet.
He showed Moses how he went about his work,
opened up his plans to all Israel.
God is sheer mercy and grace;
not easily angered, he’s rich in love.
He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold,
nor hold grudges forever.
He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve,
nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.
As high as heaven is over the earth,
so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset,
he has separated us from our sins.
As parents feel for their children,
God feels for those who fear him.
He knows us inside and out,
keeps in mind that we’re made of mud.
Men and women don’t live very long;
like wildflowers they spring up and blossom,
But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly,
leaving nothing to show they were here.
God’s love, though, is ever and always,
eternally present to all who fear him,
Making everything right for them and their children
as they follow his Covenant ways
and remember to do whatever he said.
INSIGHT:
In Psalm 103, David praises God for His tender mercies and steadfast love (vv. 4, 8, 11, 17). David did not want to forget the many blessings God had given him (v. 2)—forgiveness and healing (v. 3), deliverance (v. 4), provision and renewal (v. 5), and protection (v. 6). This psalm reminds us of who God is (vv. 7–9, 13, 19), what He has done with our sins (vv. 10–12), and who we are (vv. 14–16). In response, we “praise the Lord” (vv. 20–22).
What Can I Give Him?
By Marion Stroud
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalm 103:2
One year, those responsible for decorating their church for Christmas decided to use the theme of “Christmas lists.” Instead of decorating with the usual shiny gold and silver ornaments, they gave each person a red or green tag. On one side they were to write down the gift they would like from Jesus, and on the other they were to list the gift they would give to the One whose birth they were celebrating.
If you were to do this, what gift would you ask for and what would you offer? The Bible gives us lots of ideas. God promises to supply all our needs, so we might ask for a new job, help with financial problems, physical healing for ourselves or others, or a restored relationship. We might be wondering what our spiritual gift is that equips us for God’s service. Many of these are listed in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Or we might long to show more of the fruit of the Holy Spirit: to be more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind and good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled (Gal. 5:22–23).
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalm 103:2
The most important gift we can ever receive is God’s gift of His Son, our Savior, and with Him forgiveness, restoration, and the promise of spiritual life that begins now and lasts forever. And the most important gift we can ever give is to give Jesus our heart.
You overwhelm me with Your gifts, Lord. In return, I want to give You the very best present that I can. Please show me what You want most from me.
If I were a wise man, I would do my part. Yet what can I give Him—give Him my heart. Christina G. Rossetti
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 23, 2016
Sharing in the Atonement
God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14
The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.
Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “…without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 23, 2016
Why We Can't Sleep In Heavenly Peace - #7815
It might be the favorite song of the Christmas season; a lullaby written to the Christ Child many years ago in a little mountain village in Austria. You probably know what it is. A village pastor, desperate for some music for his Christmas Eve service since the church organ wasn't working, thanks to a mouse eating through parts of the organ! His composition didn't stay in that village. It spread from the Alps around the world, and you can't have a Christmas season without hearing it – probably multiple times. The signature song of celebrating Christmas, "Silent Night." Every verse ends with those beautiful calming words, "Sleep in heavenly peace." Nice words. Not always the way it is.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why We Can't Sleep in Heavenly Peace."
While the song is directed to the baby Jesus, the idea of having that "heavenly peace" is something for all of us. Not just to sleep in peace, but to live with peace in your heart. For many folks, that inner peace has been elusive their whole life; maybe something you know all too well. There's been no relationship, no accomplishment, no experience, not even a religion that has given you what your heart really desperately cries out for – lasting personal peace. An anchor inside that holds you steady in the most stressful, most uncertain of times.
The Bible actually describes the condition of many a human heart I think pretty graphically this way: "Like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud" (Isaiah 57:20). Ever been to the ocean during a storm? You know what that looks like. Then God uses these two words to describe any heart without God in it, "There is no peace." No peace – the guilt of our mistakes, the people we've hurt, the things that have hurt us, our fears about the future, our chronic feeling of loneliness, of lostness, of meaninglessness. They make it hard to live in peace – to sleep in peace.
"Silent Night" is right when it refers to peace as being "heavenly peace." It's only heaven, it's only God that can finally bring peace to the lifelong storm in our hearts. One of the classic scriptures of Christmas suggests why we don't have God's peace and how we can. In Isaiah 9:6, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says: "Unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." There it is. Jesus came here to be our Prince of Peace, but you can't have His peace until He's your Prince.
Jesus is supposed to be governing your life. It's nice to have Jesus as a belief, or a religion, or a security blanket. But He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We've chosen to drive our own life where we want it to go, effectively ignoring the God who made us. So Jesus may be in your church, but He's not in charge. He may be a compartment in your life, but He's not in control of your life. He may be in your head, but not in your heart.
And it's only when you put your trust in Him with all your heart that your sins are forgiven and your relationship with God finally begins. Because heaven's Prince went all the way to a cross to pay for your sins, to cancel what has kept you from God and from His peace all these years. And what will keep you from Him forever if you don't belong to Jesus. Let's get that done this Christmas, huh?
You could belong to Jesus before this day is over. You need to reach out to Him and give yourself to Him. And what better time than this season when He came here to die for you? If you're ready to move from a religion to a relationship with Jesus, if you're ready to trade the hell you deserve for the heaven you could never deserve, tell Jesus, "Lord, I'm Yours."
Our website is there to help you be sure you belong to Him. And I'd encourage you to check it out whenever you can as soon as you can. It's ANewStory.com. I'll meet you there.
Tonight you can go to sleep forgiven and safe, with the missing part of you no longer missing. You'll belong to Jesus. And you really can sleep in heavenly peace. "Merry Christmas!"
