Max Lucado Daily: A HOPE-FILLED HEART
You and I live in a trashy world. Unwanted garbage comes our way on a regular basis. Haven’t you been handed a trash sack of mishaps and heartaches? Sure you have. May I ask, what are you going to do with it? You could hide it; pretend it isn’t there. But sooner or later it will start to stink. So what will you do?
If you follow the example of Christ, you will learn to see tough times differently. He wants you to have a hope-filled heart…just like Jesus. Wouldn’t you want that? Jesus saw his Father’s presence in the problem. Sure, Max, but Jesus was God. I can’t see the way he saw. Not yet, maybe. But don’t underestimate God’s power. He can change the way you look at life.
From Lucado Inspirational Reader
Zephaniah 3
Sewer City
1-5 Doom to the rebellious city,
the home of oppressors—Sewer City!
The city that wouldn’t take advice,
wouldn’t accept correction,
Wouldn’t trust God,
wouldn’t even get close to her own god!
Her very own leaders
are rapacious lions,
Her judges are rapacious timber wolves
out every morning prowling for a fresh kill.
Her prophets are out for what they can get.
They’re opportunists—you can’t trust them.
Her priests desecrate the Sanctuary.
They use God’s law as a weapon to maim and kill souls.
Yet God remains righteous in her midst,
untouched by the evil.
He stays at it, day after day, meting out justice.
At evening he’s still at it, strong as ever.
But evil men and women, without conscience
and without shame, persist in evil.
6 “So I cut off the godless nations.
I knocked down their defense posts,
Filled her roads with rubble
so no one could get through.
Her cities were bombed-out ruins,
unlivable and unlived in.
7 “I thought, ‘Surely she’ll honor me now,
accept my discipline and correction,
Find a way of escape from the trouble she’s in,
find relief from the punishment I’m bringing.’
But it didn’t faze her. Bright and early
she was up at it again, doing the same old things.
8 “Well, if that’s what you want, stick around.”
God’s Decree.
“Your day in court is coming,
but remember I’ll be there to bring evidence.
I’ll bring all the nations to the courtroom,
round up all the kingdoms,
And let them feel the brunt of my anger,
my raging wrath.
My zeal is a fire
that will purge and purify the earth.
God Is in Charge at the Center
9-13 “In the end I will turn things around for the people.
I’ll give them a language undistorted, unpolluted,
Words to address God in worship
and, united, to serve me with their shoulders to the wheel.
They’ll come from beyond the Ethiopian rivers,
they’ll come praying—
All my scattered, exiled people
will come home with offerings for worship.
You’ll no longer have to be ashamed
of all those acts of rebellion.
I’ll have gotten rid of your arrogant leaders.
No more pious strutting on my holy hill!
I’ll leave a core of people among you
who are poor in spirit—
What’s left of Israel that’s really Israel.
They’ll make their home in God.
This core holy people
will not do wrong.
They won’t lie,
won’t use words to flatter or seduce.
Content with who they are and where they are,
unanxious, they’ll live at peace.”
14-15 So sing, Daughter Zion!
Raise the rafters, Israel!
Daughter Jerusalem,
be happy! celebrate!
God has reversed his judgments against you
and sent your enemies off chasing their tails.
From now on, God is Israel’s king,
in charge at the center.
There’s nothing to fear from evil
ever again!
God Is Present Among You
16-17 Jerusalem will be told:
“Don’t be afraid.
Dear Zion,
don’t despair.
Your God is present among you,
a strong Warrior there to save you.
Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love
and delight you with his songs.
18-20 “The accumulated sorrows of your exile
will dissipate.
I, your God, will get rid of them for you.
You’ve carried those burdens long enough.
At the same time, I’ll get rid of all those
who’ve made your life miserable.
I’ll heal the maimed;
I’ll bring home the homeless.
In the very countries where they were hated
they will be venerated.
On Judgment Day
I’ll bring you back home—a great family gathering!
You’ll be famous and honored
all over the world.
You’ll see it with your own eyes—
all those painful partings turned into reunions!”
God’s Promise.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Read: Haggai 2:15–23
15-17 “‘Think back. Before you set out to lay the first foundation stones for the rebuilding of my Temple, how did it go with you? Isn’t it true that your foot-dragging, halfhearted efforts at rebuilding the Temple of God were reflected in a sluggish, halfway return on your crops—half the grain you were used to getting, half the wine? I hit you with drought and blight and hail. Everything you were doing got hit. But it didn’t seem to faze you. You continued to ignore me.’ God’s Decree.
18-19 “‘Now think ahead from this same date—this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Think ahead from when the Temple rebuilding was launched. Has anything in your fields—vine, fig tree, pomegranate, olive tree—failed to flourish? From now on you can count on a blessing.’”
20-21 God’s Message came a second time to Haggai on that most memorable day, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month: “Speak to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah:
21-23 “‘I am about to shake up everything, to turn everything upside down and start over from top to bottom—overthrow governments, destroy foreign powers, dismantle the world of weapons and armaments, throw armies into confusion, so that they end up killing one another. And on that day’”—this is God’s Message—“‘I will take you, O Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, as my personal servant and I will set you as a signet ring, the sign of my sovereign presence and authority. I’ve looked over the field and chosen you for this work.’” The Message of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
INSIGHT:
Just as Zerubbabel is likened to a signet ring, each Christian is marked by God’s authorized acceptance in Christ (Eph. 1:4–5, 11). As such, we are identified as Christians (Acts 11:26; 1 Pet. 4:14–16) and authorized as envoys or carriers of the most important information in the entire world (Matt. 28:18–20). How can we be more effective disseminators of that truth this week? How could we have a more valuable New Year’s resolution than to act like God’s signet rings in this upcoming year?
Signet Ring
By Amy Boucher Pye
“I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,” declares the Lord. Haggai 2:23
When I first made the acquaintance of a new friend from abroad, I noticed his posh English accent and that he wore a ring on his little finger. Later I learned that this wasn’t just jewelry; it revealed his family’s history through the family crest engraved on it.
It was a bit like a signet ring—perhaps like the one in Haggai. In this short Old Testament book, the prophet Haggai calls for the people of God to restart the rebuilding of the temple. They had been exiled and had now returned to their homeland and begun rebuilding, but enemy opposition to their project had stalled them. Haggai’s message includes God’s promise to Zerubbabel, Judah’s leader, that he had been chosen and set apart as their leader, like a signet ring.
Father God, may I know my true identity as Your heir this day.
In ancient times, a signet ring was used as a means of identification. Instead of signing their name, people would press their ring into hot wax or soft clay to make their mark. As God’s children, we too make a mark on the world as we spread the gospel, share His grace through loving our neighbors, and work to end oppression.
Each of us has our own unique stamp that reveals how we’re created in God’s image and expresses our particular mix of gifts, passions, and wisdom. It’s our call and privilege to act as this signet ring in God’s world.
Father God, may I know my true identity as Your heir this day. (See Luke 15.)
We are God’s heirs and ambassadors, sharing His love in the world.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Deserter or Disciple?
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. —John 6:66
When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “…for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.
Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 29, 2016
The Jobs We Don't Want To Do - #7819
As our kids were growing up, Saturday was always chore day at the Hutchcraft house. It was the day we got our leaves raked and bagged, rooms got cleaned – or hosed out like a monkey cage as the case may be. It was the day the garage got dug out, the dirty clothes got clean, broken things got fixed. It wasn't that kids jumped out of bed on Saturday morning said, "What do you have for me to do today, Dad?" No, Saturday mornings often involved some delicate labor negotiations, especially when it came to someone getting a job that meant more time and more dirty work than some of the others. That child might say, "I don't want to do Job A. I want Job B." To which I would reply, "I pay the allowances and the bonuses around here." (See, usually there was extra pay for extra work). So I would tell them, "Don't forget lesson #1 of working – you don't pick your jobs. The person who pays you decides the jobs you'll do."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have AWORD WITH YOU today about "The Jobs We Don't Want To Do."
Now our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 10, where Simon Peter is being assigned by His boss to do an unpleasant chore. Peter has been preaching Christ to Jewish audiences who knew the Scriptures and respected God's laws. Now, God wants Peter to reach out and go to the house of Cornelius, a Roman military leader, to reach out to this Gentile. Now Peter's lifelong feeling about Gentiles could be summed up in one word, "Yuck!" They didn't know the Bible, they ate what the Jewish law called unclean foods, they lived outside God's laws. And God sends Peter a vision to prepare him for this job he is not going to want to do. It's a vision of a sheet with animals that Peter, as a Jew, considers unclean to eat.
Acts 10 beginning at verse 12, "Then a voice told him, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat. 'Surely not, Lord!' Peter replied. 'I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.' The voice spoke to him a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven." Well, immediately Peter finds at his door men who have come to invite him to the house of Cornelius, that Gentile. The Bible says, "Peter said to the men, 'I'm the one you're looking for.' Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests." And the next day he's off to meet Cornelius.
God gave Peter a job he really didn't want to do. Peter knew who the Boss was, and that the One who pays you decides the job you'll do. Peter obeyed, and it led to some amazing results. Now maybe God has given you an unpleasant chore, and you're balking, just like my kids on Saturday morning.
It could be God is leading you to befriend a person who is not very attractive, who might be pretty demanding. Or the assignment might be to share Christ with someone who isn't much fun to be around, or is hard to talk to, or to minister to a group of people that you find irritating or even repulsive, or possibly to work closely with someone who is definitely not your type. Whatever the job you don't feel like doing, would you tell the Lord your reservations like Peter did? Then go ahead and do it anyway – like Peter did. And like Peter, you'll get some important results probably in what it will do for them and how it will grow you.
I'm really glad that Jesus doesn't just hang around with people who are His type. You and I wouldn't stand a chance. No, He will reward you generously for doing the unpleasant chores, the ones that will stretch you. So if your Lord is giving you a job you don't want to do, will you trust His judgment over yours? Then start on it today without delay. It's an assignment Jesus has been preparing for you long before today. Believe me, what the Boss says to do will pay off.