Max Lucado Daily: Approaching God
Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy! And how do children approach their daddies? I went to a school playground to find out. When a five-year-old spots his father in the parking lot, how does he react?
"Yippee!" screamed a redheaded boy wearing a Batman backpack.
"Pop!" Over here! Push me!" yelled a boy wearing a Boston Red Sox cap who scooted straight to the swings.
Here's what I didn't hear: "Father, it is most gracious of thee to drive thy car to my place of education. Please know of my deep gratitude for your benevolence. For thou art splendid in they attentive care and diligent in they dedication."
I heard kids who were happy to see their dads and eager to speak to them! God invites us to approach Him in the same manner. What a relief!
Before Amen
He Carried Our Diseases
8 1-2 Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”
3-4 Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”
5-6 As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”
7 Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”
8-9 “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10-12 Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”
13 Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.
14-15 By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.
16-17 That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known sermon:
He took our illnesses,
He carried our diseases.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Read: Proverbs 18:10–11
God’s name is a place of protection—
good people can run there and be safe.
11 The rich think their wealth protects them;
they imagine themselves safe behind it.
INSIGHT
One of the greatest biblical descriptions of a truly “safe place” is found in the familiar words of Psalm 23. Some scholars envision David writing this Shepherd-psalm while still a young boy, perhaps lying under a star-filled night sky. Others see so much maturity and wisdom in the song that they imagine Psalm 23 as the reflections of an elderly person who has lived long and learned much. Either way, the song clearly describes David’s “safe place.” It was a place of provision (v. 1); a place of green pastures and quiet, relaxing waters (v. 2); and a place for spiritual restoration and spiritual guidance (v. 3). But, most of all, it was a place where David experienced the presence of God, who removed all his fear and provided deep comfort (v. 4). - Bill Crowder
Your Safe Place
By Elisa Morgan
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
My daughter and I were arranging to attend an extended family gathering. Because she was nervous about the trip, I offered to drive. “Okay. But I feel safer in my car. Can you drive it?” she asked. I assumed she preferred her more spacious vehicle to my compact one so I responded, “Is my car too cramped?” “No, it’s just that my car is my safe place. Somehow I feel protected there.”
Her comment challenged me to consider my own personal “safe place.” Immediately I thought of Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” In Old Testament times, the walls and watchtower of a city provided warning of danger from without and shielding for its citizens within. The writer’s point is that God’s name, which stands for His character, person, and everything that He is, provides true protection for His people.
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
Certain physical places promise longed-for safety in moments that seem dangerous. A sturdy roof overhead in the midst of a storm. A hospital offering medical care. The embrace of a loved one.
What is your “safe place”? Wherever we seek safety, it is God’s presence with us in that place that provides the strength and protection we really need.
Dear God, thank You that no matter what worries and concerns we have today, when we think about You, we find safety in Your presence.
Where is your safe place? Share at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
God is a safe place in life’s storms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Impulsiveness or Discipleship?
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith… —Jude 20
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman— an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises— human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God— but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people— and this is not learned in five minutes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R
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