Max Lucado Daily: JUST FOR YOU
I’m about to tell you something you may find hard to believe. You don’t have to agree with me, but I’d like you to consider it with me. Here it is: If you were the only person on earth, the earth would look exactly the same. The Himalayas would still have their drama and the Caribbean its charm. The sun would still nestle behind the Rockies in the evenings and spray light on the desert in the mornings.
If you were the sole pilgrim on this globe, God would not diminish its beauty one degree. Because He did it all for you. And He’s waiting for you to discover His gift, for your eyes to pop, your heart to stop. He’s waiting for the moment between the dropping of the jaw and the leap of the heart. For in that silence He whispers… I did it just for you.
From Lucado Inspirational Reader
Matthew 10:1-20
The Twelve Harvest Hands
1-4 The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. This is the list of the twelve he sent:
Simon (they called him Peter, or “Rock”),
Andrew, his brother,
James, Zebedee’s son,
John, his brother,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
Thomas,
Matthew, the tax man,
James, son of Alphaeus,
Thaddaeus,
Simon, the Canaanite,
Judas Iscariot (who later turned on him).
5-8 Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:
“Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.
9-10 “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.
11 “When you enter a town or village, don’t insist on staying in a luxury inn. Get a modest place with some modest people, and be content there until you leave.
12-15 “When you knock on a door, be courteous in your greeting. If they welcome you, be gentle in your conversation. If they don’t welcome you, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way. You can be sure that on Judgment Day they’ll be mighty sorry—but it’s no concern of yours now.
16 “Stay alert. This is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.
17-20 “Don’t be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don’t be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they’ve done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 09, 2017
Read: Revelation 22:1–5
Eden Restored
22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
INSIGHT
In Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, he writes about Revelation 22:1–5: “The presence of God in heaven is the health and happiness of the saints. . . . The devil has no power there . . . . There will be no night; no affliction or dejection, no pause in service or enjoyment: no diversions or pleasures of man’s inventing will be desired there.” In this “new heaven and earth,” Jesus will wipe away our tears and “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (21:4). The promise of an end to our suffering can bring a glimmer of hope and joy to our life when we face difficulties, but the brightest hope comes in the knowledge that one day we as His followers will be in the presence of our Lord who loves us. Free from temptation, free from sin, and free from pain and sadness and death, we’ll have only joy in the service of the King!
How does the promise of this bright future help you today when you face troubles and trials? What about heaven do you most anticipate? - Alyson Kieda
A Good Ending
By Amy Boucher Pye
The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face. Revelation 22:3–4
As the lights dimmed and we prepared to watch Apollo 13, my friend said under his breath, “Shame they all died.” I watched the movie about the 1970 spaceflight with apprehension, waiting for tragedy to strike, and only near the closing credits did I realize I’d been duped. I hadn’t known or remembered the end of the true story—that although the astronauts faced many hardships, they made it home alive.
In Christ, we can know the end of the story—that we too will make it home alive. By that I mean we will live forever with our heavenly Father, as we see in the book of Revelation. The Lord will create a “new heaven and a new earth” as He makes all things new (21:1, 5). In the new city, the Lord God will welcome His people to live with Him, without fear and without the night. We have hope in knowing the end of the story.
God promises His people a good end to the story.
What difference does this make? It can transform times of extreme difficulty, such as when people face the loss of a loved one or even their own death. Though we recoil at the thought of dying, yet we can embrace the joy of the promise of eternity. We long for the city where no longer will there be any curse, where we’ll live forever by God’s light (22:5).
Lord Jesus Christ, give me unfailing hope, that I might rest in Your promises and welcome Your life eternal.
God promises His people a good end to the story.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 09, 2017
Sacred Service
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ… —Colossians 1:24
The Christian worker has to be a sacred “go-between.” He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.
When we say, “What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!” then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 09, 2017
That Beautiful Mess - #8044
You know, sometimes people just overwhelm me with their love and their kindness. Some dear people from the church I grew up in learned about some needs we had in our home for a long time. And well, with the schedule I had, there really wasn't much time to make some of the desperately needed improvements or repairs-not to mention the fact that I (How can we put this?) am constructionally challenged. And with our limited budget, we hadn't been able to pay anyone else to do it either. Well, in this amazing expression of God's love, a work crew from my childhood church came to our house for three intensive days of house transformation. And now we could see all over the house the wonderful results of their labors and their love.
But while they were in the middle of that work, life got very interesting around our house. We couldn't park in the driveway. Walking through the house was like walking through a minefield of cans and tools and workers. Our clothes were out of closets and laying all over tables. Furniture that had to be moved out of the worker's way made it very exciting just to walk through the house. It was a total mess! And even though I didn't enjoy the mess, I could handle the mess-for one simple reason: they were making our house a mess in order to make it better than it's ever been before.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "That Beautiful Mess."
In the pages of the Bible, there is probably no man whose life became more of a mess than Job. His name is synonymous with suffering. Right? He loved God, but he lost his health, his fortune, his children. In his body and in his heart he experienced excruciating, relentless pain.
Here's Job's perspective on a life that had turned into a disaster. Our word for today from the Word of God, Job 42:1. "Then Job replied to the Lord, ‘I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted.'" So Job is saying, "Through it all, Lord, I've learned You've got everything under control." Now, listen - verse 5, Job describes how this painful time has affected his relationship with God. In these remarkable words he says, "My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You." The God he knew about when the house of his life was neat and tidy he now knows intimately because of the mess his life became.
And all along God was planning to make the house of his life better than it had ever been before. Job 42:10, "After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again...the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters." But this post-mess Job had a relationship with God, a deep understanding of God, that the pre-mess Job had never imagined. It took the mess to accomplish the makeover in Job's life-and maybe in yours.
It could be that you're looking around your life right now and all you can see is clutter and mess and dislocation. Like me, with our topsy-turvy, under-construction house, you're not enjoying this season at all. Trying to make sense of it has only led to greater frustration. You're not sure how you're going to make it through this painful mess.
Now the good Christian answer is, "Trust God." But because of what I experienced when my house looked like Tornado Junction, I think I understand a little better what that really means. I could tolerate the mess because I knew this was a process to make things better than they had ever been before even though it sure didn't look like it in the middle of the process.
For you to trust God right now means believing and means declaring-even when it doesn't look like it and when you don't feel like it-that this mess is God's process for making things His way. This mess is not the final outcome. No, it's the road to a better life to live in than you've ever experienced before.
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