When defining what love is not, the apostle Paul put rudeness on the list. “Love does not behave rudely” (1 Corinthians 13:5 NIV).
Rudeness snatches parking spaces. Rudeness mocks others. Rudeness interrupts. Christ, on the other hand, was courteous. He was patient, thoughtful, and careful to treat people with respect.
Notice that the first five letters of the word courteous spell court. In old England, to be courteous was to act in the way of the court. The family and servants of the king were expected to follow a higher standard. So are we. Are we not called to represent the King?
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 26
As the Waves of the Sea, Surging Against the Shore
1-2 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, Tyre cheered when they got the news of Jerusalem, exclaiming,
“‘Good! The gateway city is smashed!
Now all her business comes my way.
She’s in ruins
and I’m in clover.’
3-6 “Therefore, God, the Master, has this to say:
“‘I’m against you, Tyre,
and I’ll bring many nations surging against you,
as the waves of the sea surging against the shore.
They’ll smash the city walls of Tyre
and break down her towers.
I’ll wash away the soil
and leave nothing but bare rock.
She’ll be an island of bare rock in the ocean,
good for nothing but drying fishnets.
Yes, I’ve said so.’ Decree of God, the Master.
‘She’ll be loot, free pickings for the nations!
Her surrounding villages will be butchered.
Then they’ll realize that I am God.’
7-14 “God, the Master, says: Look! Out of the north I’m bringing Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king’s king, down on Tyre. He’ll come with chariots and horses and riders—a huge army. He’ll massacre your surrounding villages and lay siege to you. He’ll build siege ramps against your walls. A forest of shields will advance against you! He’ll pummel your walls with his battering rams and shatter your towers with his iron weapons. You’ll be covered with dust from his horde of horses—a thundering herd of war horses pouring through the breaches, pulling chariots. Oh, it will be an earthquake of an army and a city in shock! Horses will stampede through the streets. Your people will be slaughtered and your huge pillars strewn like matchsticks. The invaders will steal and loot—all that wealth, all that stuff! They’ll knock down your fine houses and dump the stone and timber rubble into the sea. And your parties, your famous good-time parties, will be no more. No more songs, no more lutes. I’ll reduce you to an island of bare rock, good for nothing but drying fishnets. You’ll never be rebuilt. I, God, have said so. Decree of God, the Master.
Introduced to the Terrors of Death
15 “This is the Message of God, the Master, to Tyre: Won’t the ocean islands shake at the crash of your collapse, at the groans of your wounded, at your mayhem and massacre?
16-18 “All up and down the coast, the princes will come down from their thrones, take off their royal robes and fancy clothes, and wrap themselves in sheer terror. They’ll sit on the ground, shaken to the core, horrified at you. Then they’ll begin chanting a funeral song over you:
“‘Sunk! Sunk to the bottom of the sea,
famous city on the sea!
Power of the seas,
you and your people,
Intimidating everyone
who lived in your shadows.
But now the islands are shaking
at the sound of your crash,
Ocean islands in tremors
from the impact of your fall.’
19-21 “The Message of God, the Master: ‘When I turn you into a wasted city, a city empty of people, a ghost town, and when I bring up the great ocean deeps and cover you, then I’ll push you down among those who go to the grave, the long, long dead. I’ll make you live there, in the grave in old ruins, with the buried dead. You’ll never see the land of the living again. I’ll introduce you to the terrors of death and that’ll be the end of you. They’ll send out search parties for you, but you’ll never be found. Decree of God, the Master.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Read: Daniel 6:19–28
At daybreak the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. As he approached the den, he called out anxiously, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve so loyally, saved you from the lions?”
21-22 “O king, live forever!” said Daniel. “My God sent his angel, who closed the mouths of the lions so that they would not hurt me. I’ve been found innocent before God and also before you, O king. I’ve done nothing to harm you.”
23 When the king heard these words, he was happy. He ordered Daniel taken up out of the den. When he was hauled up, there wasn’t a scratch on him. He had trusted his God.
24 Then the king commanded that the conspirators who had informed on Daniel be thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. Before they hit the floor, the lions had them in their jaws, tearing them to pieces.
25-27 King Darius published this proclamation to every race, color, and creed on earth:
Peace to you! Abundant peace!
I decree that Daniel’s God shall be worshiped and feared in all parts of my kingdom.
He is the living God, world without end. His kingdom never falls.
His rule continues eternally.
He is a savior and rescuer.
He performs astonishing miracles in heaven and on earth.
He saved Daniel from the power of the lions.
28 From then on, Daniel was treated well during the reign of Darius, and also in the following reign of Cyrus the Persian.
INSIGHT:
Daniel’s brave faith has inspired countless generations. Not only was his deliverance rightly perceived by the pagan king as a miracle, but it also resulted in a public declaration of the incomparable greatness of Yahweh. Do you need courage to face a trial today? By faith commit it to our faithful God.
Living With Lions
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
He is the living God and He endures forever. Daniel 6:26
When I visited a museum in Chicago, I saw one of the original Striding Lions of Babylon. It was a large mural-type image of a winged lion with a ferocious expression. Symbolizing Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love and war, the lion was an example of 120 similar lions that would have lined a Babylonian pathway during the years of 604–562 bc.
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| Striding Lions of Babylon |
Historians say that after the Babylonians defeated Jerusalem, the Hebrew captives would have seen these lions during their time in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. Historians also say it’s likely that some of the Israelites would have believed Ishtar had defeated the God of Israel.
Dear God, give me the strength to continue to trust in You when I am discouraged.
Daniel, one of the Hebrew captives, did not share the doubts that might have troubled some of his fellow Israelites. His view of God and his commitment to God stayed steady. He prayed three times a day—with his windows open—even when he knew it would mean entering a den of lions. After God rescued Daniel from the hungry animals, King Darius said, “[Daniel’s God] is the living God and he endures forever . . . . He rescues and he saves” (Dan. 6:26–27). Daniel’s faithfulness allowed him to influence Babylonian leaders.
Staying faithful to God despite pressure and discouragement can inspire other people to give Him glory.
Dear God, give me the strength to continue to trust in You when I am discouraged. Help me to experience Your never-ending love and stay close to Your side.
Faithfulness to God inspires others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
His Ascension and Our Access
It came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. —Luke 24:51
We have no experiences in our lives that correspond to the events in our Lord’s life after the transfiguration. From that moment forward His life was altogether substitutionary. Up to the time of the transfiguration, He had exhibited the normal, perfect life of a man. But from the transfiguration forward— Gethsemane, the Cross, the resurrection— everything is unfamiliar to us. His Cross is the door by which every member of the human race can enter into the life of God; by His resurrection He has the right to give eternal life to anyone, and by His ascension our Lord entered heaven, keeping the door open for humanity.
The transfiguration was completed on the Mount of Ascension. If Jesus had gone to heaven directly from the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have gone alone. He would have been nothing more to us than a glorious Figure. But He turned His back on the glory, and came down from the mountain to identify Himself with fallen humanity.
The ascension is the complete fulfillment of the transfiguration. Our Lord returned to His original glory, but not simply as the Son of God— He returned to His father as the Son of Man as well. There is now freedom of access for anyone straight to the very throne of God because of the ascension of the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ deliberately limited His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. But now they are His in absolute, full power. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ now has all the power at the throne of God. From His ascension forward He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
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
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Holding Eternity In Your Hands - #7918
He was one of the outstanding place kickers in the National Football League, and he actually helping his team win some memorable games with his field goal accuracy. But he had a spiritual hole in his heart. As he tells his story-which he did before tens of thousands of people at a Billy Graham Mission - it was a sudden, debilitating disease that got his attention. He began to be aware how desperately he needed the God who could do what he could never do. He points to the man who was his ball - holder as the one who really showed him Jesus. Of course, when that football is snapped to the holder for that field goal attempt, it's the sure hands of the ball holder that the kicker depends on completely. But this former star, now a highly visible ambassador for Christ in his community, tells insightfully how much his Christian teammate really meant in his life. He explains it this way: "He wasn't just holding the football in his hands, he was holding my eternal future in his hands!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Holding Eternity In Your Hands."
If you're on Jesus' team, that's the position you're playing for people around you whether you realize it or not. You are, in a sense, holding their eternity in your hands, because you know Jesus and they don't. And if you don't tell them, they probably never will. Which means they have no hope of this life ever making sense, and no hope of heaven when they die.
Many of us just don't realize the amazing position God has given us; a position that gives you the possibility of your life mattering forever and ever. That position is spelled out in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, which is our word for today from the Word of God. It says, "God...reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (that's bringing together someone Jesus died for with the Man who died for them). It says "that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."
So that's why you are where you are. That's why you're doing what you do. That's why you know who you know. You are there to take those folks in one hand and Jesus in the other hand and bring them together! How are you doing? It's as if we're saying, "Jesus couldn't be here in person, but He put me here to tell you about Him." Your message isn't about your religion compared to their religion. No, it's about life's most important relationship! It's a message of reconciliation! A relationship we were created to have, but a relationship we don't have because we've run our own life.
A relationship, though, that we can have because of what Jesus did, and it's a relationship you must choose. It's that simple: a relationship you were created for that you don't have, that you can have, and that you must choose. That's life-or-death information...eternal life-or-death.
It isn't so much that Jesus is asking you to go out on some witnessing raid of people you don't know. He wants you to do what you already do every day for eternity, by trying to take some of the people you're with all the time to heaven with you. You go to where you go every day on an eternity mission.
You may think there's someone more qualified, but you're the one who's there, and you are there by God's divine assignment. He picked you for them. Don't miss the mission He put you there for! Jesus has placed you in the middle of some people whose eternity depends on them knowing Him, and you - in a sense - are holding eternity in your hands!
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