Max Lucado Daily: A DECLARATION OF TRUTH
As our high priest, Jesus offers our prayers to God. His prayers are always heard. John 16:23 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.”
The phrase,“In Jesus’ name,” is not an empty motto or talisman. It is a declaration of truth! Cancer is not in charge, Jesus is. The grumpy neighbor doesn’t rule the world— Jesus, you do! Just speak the word, Jesus! Since God works, prayer works. Since you matter to God, your prayers matter in heaven. And on the occasions you can’t find the words to say, pull out this pocket prayer:
Father, you are good. I need help. Heal me and forgive me.
They need help. Thank you.
In Jesus’ name, amen!
From Before Amen
Acts 24
Paul States His Defense
1-4 Within five days, the Chief Priest Ananias arrived with a contingent of leaders, along with Tertullus, a trial lawyer. They presented the governor with their case against Paul. When Paul was called before the court, Tertullus spoke for the prosecution: “Most Honorable Felix, we are most grateful in all times and places for your wise and gentle rule. We are much aware that it is because of you and you alone that we enjoy all this peace and gain daily profit from your reforms. I’m not going to tire you out with a long speech. I beg your kind indulgence in listening to me. I’ll be quite brief.
5-8 “We’ve found this man time and again disturbing the peace, stirring up riots against Jews all over the world, the ringleader of a seditious sect called Nazarenes. He’s a real bad apple, I must say. We caught him trying to defile our holy Temple and arrested him. You’ll be able to verify all these accusations when you examine him yourself.”
9 The Jews joined in: “Hear, hear! That’s right!”
10-13 The governor motioned to Paul that it was now his turn. Paul said, “I count myself fortunate to be defending myself before you, Governor, knowing how fair-minded you’ve been in judging us all these years. I’ve been back in the country only twelve days—you can check out these dates easily enough. I came with the express purpose of worshiping in Jerusalem on Pentecost, and I’ve been minding my own business the whole time. Nobody can say they saw me arguing in the Temple or working up a crowd in the streets. Not one of their charges can be backed up with evidence or witnesses.
14-15 “But I do freely admit this: In regard to the Way, which they malign as a dead-end street, I serve and worship the very same God served and worshiped by all our ancestors and embrace everything written in all our Scriptures. And I admit to living in hopeful anticipation that God will raise the dead, both the good and the bad. If that’s my crime, my accusers are just as guilty as I am.
16-19 “Believe me, I do my level best to keep a clear conscience before God and my neighbors in everything I do. I’ve been out of the country for a number of years and now I’m back. While I was away, I took up a collection for the poor and brought that with me, along with offerings for the Temple. It was while making those offerings that they found me quietly at my prayers in the Temple. There was no crowd, there was no disturbance. It was some Jews from around Ephesus who started all this trouble. And you’ll notice they’re not here today. They’re cowards, too cowardly to accuse me in front of you.
20-21 “So ask these others what crime they’ve caught me in. Don’t let them hide behind this smooth-talking Tertullus. The only thing they have on me is that one sentence I shouted out in the council: ‘It’s because I believe in the resurrection that I’ve been hauled into this court!’ Does that sound to you like grounds for a criminal case?”
22-23 Felix shilly-shallied. He knew far more about the Way than he let on, and could have settled the case then and there. But uncertain of his best move politically, he played for time. “When Captain Lysias comes down, I’ll decide your case.” He gave orders to the centurion to keep Paul in custody, but to more or less give him the run of the place and not prevent his friends from helping him.
24-26 A few days later Felix and his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, sent for Paul and listened to him talk about a life of believing in Jesus Christ. As Paul continued to insist on right relations with God and his people, about a life of moral discipline and the coming Judgment, Felix felt things getting a little too close for comfort and dismissed him. “That’s enough for today. I’ll call you back when it’s convenient.” At the same time he was secretly hoping that Paul would offer him a substantial bribe. These conversations were repeated frequently.
27 After two years of this, Felix was replaced by Porcius Festus. Still playing up to the Jews and ignoring justice, Felix left Paul in prison.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 30, 2016
Read: Matthew 14:13–23
Supper for Five Thousand
13-14 When Jesus got the news, he slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself. But unsuccessfully—someone saw him and the word got around. Soon a lot of people from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. When he saw them coming, he was overcome with pity and healed their sick.
15 Toward evening the disciples approached him. “We’re out in the country and it’s getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper.”
16 But Jesus said, “There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper.”
17 “All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said.
18-21 Jesus said, “Bring them here.” Then he had the people sit on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. About five thousand were fed.
Walking on the Water
22-23 As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night.
INSIGHT:
The theme of rest is at the heart of the Jewish faith. For example, one of the central practices of Judaism is Shabbat (Sabbath rest). In the first century, however, many Jewish leaders were requiring extra faith practices so burdensome that Jesus openly challenged them regarding the damage they were doing to the lives of the people (see Matt. 23:2–4). The weighty tasks of religious duty had robbed people of the relational rest God desired. That may be why Jesus spoke some of the most comforting words of His public ministry: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (11:28).
Time Alone With God
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
[Jesus] went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Matthew 14:23
It was a busy morning in the church room where I was helping. Nearly a dozen little children were chattering and playing. There was so much activity that the room became warm and I propped the door open. One little boy saw this as his chance to escape so when he thought no one was looking, he tiptoed out the door. Hot on his trail, I wasn’t surprised that he was headed straight for his daddy’s arms.
The little boy did what we need to do when life becomes busy and overwhelming—he slipped away to be with his father. Jesus looked for opportunities to spend time with His heavenly Father in prayer. Some might say this was how He coped with the demands that depleted His human energy. According to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus was headed to a solitary place when a crowd of people followed Him. Noticing their needs, Jesus miraculously healed and fed them. After that, however, He “went up on a mountainside by himself to pray” (v. 23).
When we draw near to God our minds are refreshed and our strength is renewed!
Jesus repeatedly helped multitudes of people, yet He didn’t allow Himself to become haggard and hurried. He nurtured His connection with God through prayer. How is it with you? Will you take time alone with God to experience His strength and fulfillment?
Where are you finding greater fulfillment—in meeting the demands of life or in cultivating your relationship with your Creator?
When we draw near to God our minds are refreshed and our strength is renewed!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 30, 2016
“And Every Virtue We Possess”
…All my springs are in you. —Psalm 87:7
Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “…put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!
The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 30, 2016
Fallen Down But Finishing Strong - #7820
It's usually the most watched event of the Winter Olympics every four years: the women's figure skating competition. Let's go back in the time machine to the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy. A lot of America's hopes for a gold medal were riding on Sasha Cohen; especially after she managed a thin, first-place edge after the initial short program. Then came that decisive long skating program. Suddenly, all hopes of any medal seemed to disappear with a major fall that she had early in her program. The TV commentators actually said, "Well, now it's going to be a fight just be on the podium." With a major deficit in her score from her fall, Sasha Cohen could have easily lost heart, but she didn't. She fought back with a strong and impressive showing in the rest of her performance. When the rest of the world's best had all skated, the young woman who had fallen-who seemed to have forfeited any hope of being a champion-stood on that podium with a coveted silver medal.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fallen Down But Finishing Strong."
There's someone listening today who knows the disappointment, and maybe even the shame, of a serious fall. Do you give up, or do you fight back? I could tell you which one Jesus is voting for.
You could look at what happened with Jesus' disciple, Simon Peter, to see what Jesus wants to do after you've failed. In Luke 5, beginning with verses 4-6, we see what happened after Simon's all-out fishing efforts had ended in a discouraging and total failure. Then Jesus came aboard and said, "'Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.' Simon answered, 'Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything.'" Translation: "Hey, I gave it my best shot. I failed. What's the use of trying again, Lord?" Maybe you know that feeling.
But the story doesn't end there. Simon said to Jesus, "But because You say so, I will let down the nets." Translation: "I feel like giving up, but I'm going to get back in the game for only one reason. Jesus wants me to." This time there's one big difference. Jesus is in command. The result? "They caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break." Simon's greatest catch came right on the heels of one of his greatest fishing failures, because this time he's not in command. Jesus is.
Later, when this same man has shamefully failed his Savior by going AWOL when Jesus needed Him the most, he rebounds to great spiritual leadership-including the day he helped 3,000 people come to Jesus. Because Peter at the wheel ended up in his greatest crash, so in his shame, he gave Jesus the wheel, and Simon Peter finished a champion.
In the American League Championship Baseball Series back in 2004, Boston pitcher, Curt Schilling, lost the first game to the New York Yankees. Then came the decisive fourth game of the seven game series. He came back with this overpowering performance that sparked the Boston run to actually capturing the World Series. Just before that fourth game, he said he surrendered in a new way to the Savior he belonged to. He told the press, "In Game 1, you saw what Curt Schilling could do. In Game 4, you saw what God could do."
You've seen what you could do and it didn't have a happy ending did it. Now it's time to see what God can do. Jesus promises that "your sins and iniquities I will remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12) He's told us, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) Sounds like a fresh start, doesn't it-another chance? Simon failed, Moses failed, and yet God still had something very important for them to do for Him once they repented and surrendered their brokenness to Him. He wants to do that for you.
On the eve of this brand new year, it could be a brand new start. With Jesus, failure never has to be final. If you will, in the strength of Christ, fight back from your fall, you can still stand on heaven's podium and hear your Savior's cherished words, "Well done my good and faithful servant."