Max Lucado Daily: TO FORGIVE IS NOT TO EXCUSE
It’s one thing to give grace to friends, but to give grace to those who give us grief? Most of us find it hard to forgive. Leave your enemies in God’s hands. You are not endorsing their misbehavior when you do. You can hate what someone did without letting hatred consume you. Forgiveness is not excusing. Give grace, but if need be, keep your distance. You can forgive the abusive husband without living with him. Be quick to give mercy to the immoral pastor, but be slow to give him a pulpit.
Society can dispense grace and prison terms at the same time. To forgive is to move on, not to think about the offense anymore. You don’t excuse him, endorse her, or embrace them. You just route your thoughts about them through heaven. In Romans 12:19 God says, “I will take care of it!” Let Him!
From Facing Your Giants
Revelation 8
When the Lamb ripped off the seventh seal, Heaven fell quiet— complete silence for about half an hour.
Blowing the Trumpets
2-4 I saw the Seven Angels who are always in readiness before God handed seven trumpets. Then another Angel, carrying a gold censer, came and stood at the Altar. He was given a great quantity of incense so that he could offer up the prayers of all the holy people of God on the Golden Altar before the Throne. Smoke billowed up from the incense-laced prayers of the holy ones, rose before God from the hand of the Angel.
5 Then the Angel filled the censer with fire from the Altar and heaved it to earth. It set off thunders, voices, lightnings, and an earthquake.
6-7 The Seven Angels with the trumpets got ready to blow them. At the first trumpet blast, hail and fire mixed with blood were dumped on earth. A third of the earth was scorched, a third of the trees, and every blade of green grass—burned to a crisp.
8-9 The second Angel trumpeted. Something like a huge mountain blazing with fire was flung into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, a third of the living sea creatures died, and a third of the ships sank.
10-11 The third Angel trumpeted. A huge Star, blazing like a torch, fell from Heaven, wiping out a third of the rivers and a third of the springs. The Star’s name was Wormwood. A third of the water turned bitter, and many people died from the poisoned water.
12 The fourth Angel trumpeted. A third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were hit, blacked out by a third, both day and night in one-third blackout.
13 I looked hard; I heard a lone eagle, flying through Middle-Heaven, crying out ominously, “Doom! Doom! Doom to everyone left on earth! There are three more Angels about to blow their trumpets. Doom is on its way!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, July 28, 2017
Read: 1 John 1:1-10
1-2 From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.
3-4 We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!
Walk in the Light
5 This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.
6-7 If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.
8-10 If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.
INSIGHT:
In this passage we see how confession can restore our connection with God. We are assured that even when we make wrong choices, God will offer grace and forgiveness to the truly repentant.
For further study on the subject of God’s grace, read Grace: Accepting God’s Gift to You at discoveryseries.org/q0613. Dennis Fisher
Forgiven!
By David H. Roper
I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. Psalm 119:176
My friend Norm Cook sometimes had a surprise for his family when he arrived home from work. He would walk through the front door, and shout, “You’re forgiven!” It wasn’t that family members had wronged him and needed his forgiveness. He was reminding them that though they doubtless had sinned throughout the day, they were by God’s grace fully forgiven.
The apostle John supplies this note about grace: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin [no inclination to sin], we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in 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 1:7–9).
Monitor your heart daily to avoid wandering from God’s wisdom.
To “walk in the light” is a metaphor for following Jesus. Imitating Jesus with the Spirit’s help, John insists, is the sign that we have joined with the apostles in the fellowship of faith. We are authentic Christians. But, he continues, let’s not be deceived: We will make wrong choices at times. Nevertheless, grace is given in full measure: We can take what forgiveness we need.
Not perfect; just forgiven by Jesus! That’s the good word for today.
Lord, I know I’m not even close to being perfect. That’s why I need You and Your cleansing in my life. I’m lost without You.
Monitor your heart daily to avoid wandering from God’s wisdom.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 28, 2017
God’s Purpose or Mine?
He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side… —Mark 6:45
We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.
What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see “Him walking on the sea” with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see “Him walking on the sea” (Mark 6:49). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.
God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.
God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 28, 2017
God's Ambulance - #7970
Back in the day, millions of Americans visited the emergency room once a week - well, on television. That was a blockbuster TV hit called "ER" and it very convincingly took its viewers into the tension and crisis environment of a hospital emergency room. They kind of made you feel like you were there. Of course, they're not the only medical personnel involved in a crisis care situation. I was reminded of that the other day on the interstate as this ambulance passed us. Of course, the back has those big red letters: "AMBULANCE." But this particular ambulance had sort of a subtitle - the one that raised my eyebrows and made me smile. The whole sign on the back said, "ambulance - the real emergency room." OK!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Ambulance".
Actually, that ambulance may have a point. After all, the people who administer treatment on the scene, right where the emergency need is, they sort of are the real emergency room, or at least the first one. Of course, not all emergency needs are medical. Every day people around us are facing what they consider an emotional emergency, or a financial emergency, a family emergency, a relationship emergency. And they need someone there who cares; someone who may not be a highly-trained surgeon or therapist, but who can administer some primary emergency care - God's first responder. So who are God's ambulances; His emergency rooms on wheels (or would that be legs)?
Well, our word for today from the Word of God is Luke 10 beginning in verse 31. It's a familiar story that should make us examine ourselves every time we hear it. Jesus has just announced that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Trying to wiggle out of that responsibility that goes with that commandment, one man says, "Well, who is my neighbor?" Jesus answers him with the unforgettable story of a man who is attacked on the highway by robbers, left stripped, beaten, and bleeding.
Verse 31: "A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, passed by on the other side." Then another religious leader encounters this victim on the road and he "saw him and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him." Jesus goes on to describe how this Samaritan was, in effect, God's ambulance to bandage and disinfect and get the man to a place where he could recover.
Then comes Jesus' bottom line: "'Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man?' The expert in the law replied, 'The one who had mercy on him.' Jesus told him, 'Go and do likewise'" (verses 36-37). Now you're around broken people or breaking people all the time; people who are wounded, they're hurting, they're bleeding inside. And Jesus is calling you to be a walking emergency room for people like that. He was.
What attracted Jesus to people was not how attractive they were or how well-placed they were or what they could do for Him. No, in any crowd, Jesus walked past multitudes to the person who had the greatest need. Are you like that? One of the measures of how much your heart is becoming like your Master's is how much your heart is moved and how attracted you are to the people who are hurting the most.
If you're a follower of Jesus, then He wants every day to be a mercy mission for you. You are, like that ambulance crew, right there on the scene where the wounded person is. You're in the best position to love them, to listen to them, to encourage them, to pray with them, to help them get to the emergency room where there may be more trained help. But you are "the real emergency room"!
So ask your Lord for His insight into the people you meet, His love for them, His ability to look beyond their aggravating deeds to their needs underneath. Ask Him for His words to help ease the pain and to start the healing. You're God's ambulance that's first on the scene. And so the healing starts with you!
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