Max Lucado Daily: THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT
Count your blessings! Focus more on what you have and less on what you don’t! The apostle Paul modeled gratitude. He said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. . .I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. . . I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13 NIV).
The circumstances of Paul’s life in jail were miserable. Yet with shackles dangling from his wrists, he announced, “I have learned the secret of being content.” He doesn’t say, I have learned the principle or I have learned the concept. He says, “I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need” (v.12 HCSB). Paul focused on eternal life, the love of God, and the forgiveness of sins. What he had in Christ was far greater than what he didn’t have in life!
Count your blessings and focus more on what you have and less on what you don’t!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Job 1
1-3 Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
4-5 His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, “Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly.” Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.
The First Test: Family and Fortune
6-7 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?”
Satan answered God, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.”
8 God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”
9-10 Satan retorted, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!
11 “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.”
12 God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of God.
13-15 Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
16 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
17 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
18-19 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
20 Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:
21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.
22 Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Read: Isaiah 53:1–6 |
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
INSIGHT
In their context, few Old Testament prophecies of Jesus look like clear predictions. For the most part, it is only by reading backward that we can see how Jesus brought fullness of meaning to words that were mysterious in their own time. Yet when read in light of Jesus, these words can now be life-changing.
Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant is an example of this. Many in Israel believed it was their own persecuted nation that was bearing the sins of the world. Only by looking back can people like us realize that “we” were the ones who unwittingly demanded the death of our own God and Savior (Zech. 12:10–14).
As hard as it is to admit, this is the kind of grief that is for our good and comfort. This is how we can read words that were once so mysterious and see how much our God loves us. - Mart DeHaan
An Encounter with Stones
By David C. McCasland
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Isaiah 53:5
After centuries of war and destruction, the modern city of Jerusalem is literally built on its own rubble. During a family visit, we walked the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrow), the route tradition says Jesus followed on His way to the cross. The day was hot, so we paused for a rest and descended to the cool basement of the Convent of the Sisters of Zion. There I was intrigued by the sight of ancient pavement stones unearthed during recent construction—stones etched with games played by Roman soldiers during their idle moments.
Those particular stones, even though likely from a period later than Jesus, caused me to ponder my spiritual life at the time. Like a bored soldier passing time in idle moments, I had become complacent and uncaring toward God and others. I was deeply moved by remembering that near the place I was standing, the Lord was beaten, mocked, insulted, and abused as He took all of my failure and rebellion on Himself.
Our sin is great—God’s grace is greater.
“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).
My encounter with the stones still speaks to me of Jesus’s loving grace that is greater than all my sin.
Lord Jesus, through Your great sacrifice for us, we find forgiveness, healing, and hope. Thank You that we live today and forever in Your love.
Our sin is great—God’s grace is greater.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion
…they went forth for His name’s sake… —3 John 7
Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.
Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.
The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.
The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray! Biblical Ethics, 107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The Fugitive In the Mirror - #8028
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not only the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but apparently he was a creative practical joker, too. The story is told of one horrendous - although clever - practical joke that he played one time. He just wrote a short, unsigned telegram - all in fun - to 12 of the best known men in England. The anonymous message was the same; only six words - six scary words: "All is discovered. Flee at once." You want to guess what happened? As the story goes, within 24 hours not one of those men could be found.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Fugitive In the Mirror."
Interesting! These men were chased, ultimately not by what someone else knew they had done, but by what they knew they had done.
It reminds me of the insightful words of Proverbs 28:1 in the Bible, "The wicked man flees though no one pursues." You know, twice America has run a popular TV series, and then there was ultimately a blockbuster movie called "The Fugitive." It's about a man on the run who can't shake his pursuer. In a sense, we're all "the fugitive." Every one of us knows what it is to be chased emotionally and spiritually by what we've done in the past: the people we've hurt, the messes we've made, the wrong we've done. Maybe nobody else knows, but we know and we can't shake the guilt, the regrets, and that nagging fear of having to face God with it some day.
And like the fugitive on the screen, we can get away from it for a while, but it eventually overtakes us again. Is there no way to erase the guilt of the past instead of being chased by the guilt of the past? Thank God, there is. It's described in our word for today from the Word of God in Zechariah 3:1. In a very real way, the man called "Joshua the high priest" is a picture of you and me.
Here's what it says: He is "standing before the angel of the Lord" - Who, by the way, many believe is actually Christ in the Old Testament - "and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him." The devil, who will not let you forget what you have done, stands there telling God, "Hey, there's no way You can take this one, not when You know what he's really like." Maybe you've felt that way too: too dirty for God to ever really love you - to ever let you into His heaven. The Bible describes this man as "dressed in filthy clothes."
But it goes on to say, "the angel said, 'Take off his filthy clothes.' Then he said to Joshua" - and I believe He wants to say this to you today - "'See I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.'" You'll never get anywhere with God as long as you're trying to stand before Him trying to look all religious and righteous. We're filthy, according to Him. That's what our sin makes us. But because Jesus loved you enough to take all the guilt and all the hell of your sins and pay for it on the cross, He can literally take away the guilt and take away all the penalty of all your sin.
Can I tell you what today is about? It's about you finally being clean inside, totally forgiven, and totally free from every sin you have ever committed. But you have to respond to what Jesus has done for you by trusting Him to be your personal Savior from your personal sin. You do that when you say to Him, "Jesus, I believe what You did on the cross is my only hope. I've been running my life long enough. I want to be Yours from today on, and I'm grabbing You like a drowning person would grab their rescuer."
There's some wonderful information that will help you nail down once and for all to know you have done this; to know you belong to Him at our website. Would you go there as soon as you can today? It's ANewStory.com, where maybe your new story could begin.
Today the flight of a spiritual fugitive can finally end, because it ends at the foot of Jesus' cross.
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