Max Lucado Daily: GOD DOESN’T LET GO
Many Christians think they’re saved, hope they’re saved, but still they doubt, wondering, “Am I really saved?” Our behavior gives us reason to wonder. We’re strong one day, weak the next. Devoted one hour, flagging the next. Believing, then unbelieving.
Conventional wisdom draws a line through the middle of these fluctuations. Perform above this line, and enjoy God’s acceptance. But dip below it, and expect a pink slip from heaven. Salvation then becomes a matter of timing and you just hope you die on an upswing.
Jesus’ language couldn’t be stronger: “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages…and no one is able to snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28 AMP). God doesn’t let go and He won’t let go of you!
From God is With You Every Day
Habakkuk 2
What’s God going to say to my questions? I’m braced for the worst.
I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon.
I’ll wait to see what God says,
how he’ll answer my complaint.
Full of Self, but Soul-Empty
2-3 And then God answered: “Write this.
Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness
pointing to what’s coming.
It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait!
And it doesn’t lie.
If it seems slow in coming, wait.
It’s on its way. It will come right on time.
4 “Look at that man, bloated by self-importance—
full of himself but soul-empty.
But the person in right standing before God
through loyal and steady believing
is fully alive, really alive.
5-6 “Note well: Money deceives.
The arrogant rich don’t last.
They are more hungry for wealth
than the grave is for cadavers.
Like death, they always want more,
but the ‘more’ they get is dead bodies.
They are cemeteries filled with dead nations,
graveyards filled with corpses.
Don’t give people like this a second thought.
Soon the whole world will be taunting them:
6-8 “‘Who do you think you are—
getting rich by stealing and extortion?
How long do you think
you can get away with this?’
Indeed, how long before your victims wake up,
stand up and make you the victim?
You’ve plundered nation after nation.
Now you’ll get a taste of your own medicine.
All the survivors are out to plunder you,
a payback for all your murders and massacres.
9-11 “Who do you think you are—
recklessly grabbing and looting,
Living it up, acting like king of the mountain,
acting above it all, above trials and troubles?
You’ve engineered the ruin of your own house.
In ruining others you’ve ruined yourself.
You’ve undermined your foundations,
rotted out your own soul.
The bricks of your house will speak up and accuse you.
The woodwork will step forward with evidence.
12-14 “Who do you think you are—
building a town by murder, a city with crime?
Don’t you know that God-of-the-Angel-Armies
makes sure nothing comes of that but ashes,
Makes sure the harder you work
at that kind of thing, the less you are?
Meanwhile the earth fills up
with awareness of God’s glory
as the waters cover the sea.
15-17 “Who do you think you are—
inviting your neighbors to your drunken parties,
Giving them too much to drink,
roping them into your sexual orgies?
You thought you were having the time of your life.
Wrong! It’s a time of disgrace.
All the time you were drinking,
you were drinking from the cup of God’s wrath.
You’ll wake up holding your throbbing head, hung over—
hung over from Lebanon violence,
Hung over from animal massacres,
hung over from murder and mayhem,
From multiple violations
of place and people.
18-19 “What’s the use of a carved god
so skillfully carved by its sculptor?
What good is a fancy cast god
when all it tells is lies?
What sense does it make to be a pious god-maker
who makes gods that can’t even talk?
Who do you think you are—
saying to a stick of wood, ‘Wake up,’
Or to a dumb stone, ‘Get up’?
Can they teach you anything about anything?
There’s nothing to them but surface.
There’s nothing on the inside.
20 “But oh! God is in his holy Temple!
Quiet everyone—a holy silence. Listen!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, January 02, 2017
Read: Romans 11:33–12:2 |
33-36 Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out.
Is there anyone around who can explain God?
Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?
Anyone who has done him such a huge favor
that God has to ask his advice?
Everything comes from him;
Everything happens through him;
Everything ends up in him.
Always glory! Always praise!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
INSIGHT:
As Paul begins to describe the new life we can have because of what Jesus has done (Rom. 12–16), he calls for a radical commitment involving the dedication of our bodies and transformation of our minds (12:1–2). God does not require that we die for Him; rather, we are to live for Him—“to offer [ourselves] as a living sacrifice” (v. 1). In the Old Testament two kinds of sacrifices were offered: propitiatory and dedicatory. Propitiatory or atoning sacrifices are mandatory sacrifices to atone for sin and to restore fellowship with God. Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), is the perfect and final propitiatory sacrifice. Paul emphasizes that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). Dedicatory sacrifices are thank offerings voluntarily offered to God to express thankfulness, love, and joyful worship in response to divine blessing or His mercy and grace (Lev. 7:11–15; 22:29; Pss. 50:14, 23; 107:22). We can never offer ourselves as atoning sacrifices (no human person can) because only “Jesus, the Lamb of God, [can take] away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). But we are all qualified to be a thank offering, to be “living sacrifices.”
The Perfect Gift
By David McCasland
Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1
The weeks after Christmas are the busiest time of year in the US for merchandise returns as people trade unwanted gifts for what they really want. Yet you probably know a few people who always seem to give the perfect gift. How do they know just what another person values and what is right for the occasion? The key to successful gift-giving is not money; it’s listening to others and taking a personal interest in what they enjoy and appreciate.
This is true for family and friends. But what about God? Is there anything meaningful or valuable that we can give to God? Is there anything He doesn’t already have?
Dear Lord, I’m Yours. I want to offer myself to You—heart, mind, and will.
Romans 11:33–36, a song of praise to God for His great wisdom, knowledge, and glory, is followed by a call to give ourselves to Him. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (12:1). Instead of being shaped by the world around us, we are to be “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” (v. 2).
What’s the best gift we can give to God today? In gratitude, humility, and love we can give ourselves completely to Him—heart, mind, and will. It’s just what the Lord is longing to receive from each of us.
Dear Lord, I’m Yours. I want to offer myself to You—heart, mind, and will—in humble service and in thankful worship for all You have done for me.
The best gift we can give to God is ourselves.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, January 02, 2017
Will You Go Out Without Knowing?
He went out, not knowing where he was going. —Hebrews 11:8
Have you ever “gone out” in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, “What do you expect to do?” You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to “go out” in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don’t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to “go out,” building your confidence in God. “…do not worry about your life…nor about the body…” (Luke 12:22). In other words, don’t worry about the things that concerned you before you did “go out.”
Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do— He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you “go out” in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?
Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to “go out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to “go out” through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, January 02, 2017
What Your Storm Helps You See - #7821
The Seattle Mariners were in the middle of a baseball game when it hit. It was an earthquake! And the sportscaster in the Seattle King Dome said, "Man, everything is shaking here." Well, the newscast showed the reaction of the Seattle star Ken Griffey, Jr. Even though he is one of baseball's premier players, he ran over to a spot on the field where he could see his family in the stands, and it wasn't baseball he was thinking of all of a sudden. He was motioning to his family to get out of that stadium, now and to start driving home! It reminded me of the night when an earthquake hit that third game of the 1989 World Series in San Francisco, and the remark the San Francisco catcher made that night. Even in the midst of living his World Series dream, speaking of that quake he simply said to a reporter, "Sure does change your priorities, doesn't it?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Your Storm Helps You See."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 27. There's a storm in there. Those baseball players had it right. When things are shaking it's time to remember what really matters. It happened to that great spiritual ambassador, Paul, in our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 27:18-20. Paul is a prisoner on his way to Rome for trial and there is a storm that literally shakes up everything, including everyone's priorities.
Verse 18: "We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved." Do you see how this is changing their priorities? I mean, things they would have never considered getting rid of before, they're throwing overboard.
It's amazing how life's storms and quakes make things that once looked so important, suddenly seem pretty inconsequential. And now, things that we haven't been paying much attention to suddenly seem very important. Verse 22, Paul is talking to the people onboard and he says, "I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am, and whom I serve, stood beside me and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you." Well, with everything shaking, God showed up and reminded Paul of what really mattered. Not the ship, but the people around him and the mission God had given him.
Maybe right now is one of those earthquake times or storm times for you. God wants to use this time, not to ruin you but to re-focus you on the things that really matter, like your family who you may have been unintentionally neglecting because of all the demands on you. The quake is meant to bring you back into their lives. Or, it could be that God is trying to re-focus you on a life's mission, or a life's work that He's been wanting you to do for Him.
Maybe your life's been filling up with less important things. The shaking could be to drive you back to Jesus. You've gotten away, and the storm is designed to drive you back to Him. He's urging you to come back to the safety and the love of His arms. Or maybe you've just been neglecting your relationship with Him. Not doing anything against Him, but not spending much time with Him either. The quake is His way of driving you back to depending on Him, the place where you can really experience His love and His total power.
And it could be that you've never begun your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You probably know that when He was dying on the cross it was to pay the death penalty for everything you've done wrong in your life, and that He walked out of His grave under His own power. Do you know why? One reason, so He could walk into your life, and the storm has brought you to the end of you so you could finally experience His love for yourself. Would you say, "Jesus, I'm yours" today?
And I'd love to give you some information that would help you get started with Him if you'd just go to our website ANewStory.com.
Like the baseball player said, when everything's shaking, "Sure does change your priorities." Well, don't miss the message in the shake-up. It's time to stop playing the game for a little while and start taking care again of the things that really matter.
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