Max Lucado Daily: STAY FOCUSED ON GOD
You could read David’s story in the Bible and wonder what God saw in him. He fell as often as he stood, he stumbled as often as he conquered. Yet, for those who know the sound of a Goliath, David gives us this reminder: Focus on giants—you stumble. Focus on God—your giants tumble.
You know Goliath. You recognize his walk, his talk. David saw and heard more. David showed up and raised the subject of the living God. He saw the giant, mind you; he just saw God more so. Listen carefully to David’s battle cry: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel” (1 Samuel 17:45).
Lift your eyes, giant-slayer. The God who made a miracle out of David stands ready to make one out of you!
From Facing Your Giant
Psalm 76
An Asaph Psalm
1-3 God is well-known in Judah;
in Israel, he’s a household name.
He keeps a house in Salem,
his own suite of rooms in Zion.
That’s where, using arrows for kindling,
he made a bonfire of weapons of war.
4-6 Oh, how bright you shine!
Outshining their huge piles of loot!
The warriors were plundered
and left there impotent.
And now there’s nothing to them,
nothing to show for their swagger and threats.
Your sudden roar, God of Jacob,
knocked the wind out of horse and rider.
7-10 Fierce you are, and fearsome!
Who can stand up to your rising anger?
From heaven you thunder judgment;
earth falls to her knees and holds her breath.
God stands tall and makes things right,
he saves all the wretched on earth.
Instead of smoldering rage—God-praise!
All that sputtering rage—now a garland for God!
11-12 Do for God what you said you’d do—
he is, after all, your God.
Let everyone in town bring offerings
to the One Who Watches our every move.
Nobody gets by with anything,
no one plays fast and loose with him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Read: Romans 5:1–11
Developing Patience
1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!
INSIGHT:
The biblical solution for those who feel alienated from God because of their sin is clearly addressed in today’s reading. Paul tells us that the sinner can be reconciled to a holy God because of the sacrifice of Christ the Righteous One on the cross. Now our sins can be transferred to Him in exchange for His righteousness. Our Lord is ready to receive us just as we are.
Have you trusted Christ to forgive your sin and give you the gift of eternal life? Dennis Fisher
Beyond Labels
By David C. McCasland
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
A church in my city has a unique welcome card that captures the love and grace of God for everyone. It says, “If You Are A . . . saint, sinner, loser, winner”—followed by many other terms used to describe struggling people—“alcoholic, hypocrite, cheater, fearful, misfit . . . . You are welcome here.” One of the pastors told me, “We read the card aloud together in our worship services every Sunday.”
How often we accept labels and allow them to define who we are. And how easily we assign them to others. But God’s grace defies labels because it is rooted in His love, not in our self-perception. Whether we see ourselves as wonderful or terrible, capable or helpless, we can receive eternal life as a gift from Him. The apostle Paul reminded the followers of Jesus in Rome that “at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6).
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your amazing love in Jesus.
The Lord does not require us to change by our own power. Instead He invites us to come as we are to find hope, healing, and freedom in Him. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8). The Lord is ready and willing to receive us just as we are.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your amazing love in Jesus.
God’s forgiveness defies our labels of failure or pride.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
The Mystery of Believing
He said, "Who are You, Lord?" —Acts 9:5
Through the miracle of redemption, Saul of Tarsus was instantly changed from a strong-willed and forceful Pharisee into a humble and devoted bondservant of the Lord Jesus.
There is nothing miraculous or mysterious about the things we can explain. We control what we are able to explain, consequently it is only natural to seek an explanation for everything. It is not natural to obey, yet it is not necessarily sinful to disobey. There can be no real disobedience, nor any moral virtue in obedience, unless a person recognizes the higher authority of the one giving the orders. If this recognition does not exist, even the one giving the orders may view the other person’s disobedience as freedom. If one rules another by saying, “You must do this,” and, “You will do that,” he breaks the human spirit, making it unfit for God. A person is simply a slave for obeying, unless behind his obedience is the recognition of a holy God.
Many people begin coming to God once they stop being religious, because there is only one master of the human heart— Jesus Christ, not religion. But “Woe is me” if after seeing Him I still will not obey (Isaiah 6:5 , also see Isaiah 6:1). Jesus will never insist that I obey, but if I don’t,I have already begun to sign the death certificate of the Son of God in my soul. When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and say, “I will not obey,” He will never insist. But when I do this, I am backing away from the recreating power of His redemption. It makes no difference to God’s grace what an abomination I am, if I will only come to the light. But “Woe is me” if I refuse the light (see John 3:19-21).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
The One Step We Miss - #7962
It all started with an SOS from a counselor who was talking with a young woman after a meeting where I had spoken. Her frustrated counselor just said, "Boy, this one's really hard." And, sure enough, Kelly really did seem shut down. I said, "Kelly, do you want to have a relationship with Jesus?" When she said yes, I asked her why. She responded, "Because part of me is missing, and I know it's Him. But if you only knew how many times I have tried to accept Christ, and nothing happens." Well, I was stuck – until the Lord gave me one question for Kelly, and it changed everything. It might change everything for you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The One Step We Miss".
I asked this young woman, who really wanted to know Jesus but could never seem to get the relationship off the ground, this question: "Have you ever told the Lord you are really sorry for your sin and so sorry that you're ready to change?" She had said yes to Jesus – but she missed an important ingredient in turning to God – saying no to sin.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 3:19; a roadmap to belonging to Jesus Christ. Here is what it says, "Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Now, when you turn to Jesus, you're turning from the sins that He died for. That's repentance. You can't hold Jesus in one hand and the junk that killed Him in the other. You can't turn to the West to watch the sunset without turning your back to the East. In the process of turning to the West, you are automatically turning your back on the East. You can't face two directions at the same time.
When you start to name the sins of your life – even of the past couple weeks – you realize what it is you need a Savior for. Then you visit the cross of Jesus to be saved; rescued from that sin. Unfortunately, repentance is the missing page in many a Gospel presentation. We skip over the cancer of sin lightly and we go right to the cure before the person has faced their disease. It could be that the reason that your commitment to Christ has really never gotten off the ground is because you never really repented of your sins when you turned to the One who died for those sins.
There's no real power in your life as a Christian until you let your heart be broken over your sin. It's the sin that broke your Savior. When Kelly heard the step that she had missed, the tears started coming. She bowed her head and said, "God, I'm sick of the junk." That's when the confession began. And, in her case, I believe that's when saving faith began.
Could it be that the reality you've been looking for begins with really being sorry for the sin that is breaking God's heart? It is, after all, that sin that killed His one and only son on the cross. I'm not sure a Savior can mean all that much to you until you see the seriousness of the sin that He died to save you from.
You want Jesus. You believe in Jesus. Repentance may be the one step you're missing. But you can tell Jesus right now, right where you are, "When I look at that cross and I see you dying there, Jesus, I see how awful my sin was. I see what an awful thing you had to go through to have me forgiven. I'm ready to change. I'm turning to you. Please, Jesus, forgive me. Please, Jesus, change me." That's your new beginning.
Speaking of new beginnings, our website would be a great next step for you. It's actually called ANewStory.com. If you'll go there, I can guarantee what you'll find there will literally walk you through the steps of being sure you belong to Jesus Christ from this day on. To know tonight as you go to sleep, "I have His peace in my heart. I have forgiveness for my sin, and His heaven is guaranteed."
This is the moment Jesus waits to say to you, "Finally, welcome home."
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