Max Lucado Daily:WILL YOU BE SOMEONE?
When disaster strikes, the human spirit responds by reaching out to help those afflicted. People stand in line to give blood. Rescue teams work for endless hours. But the most essential effort is accomplished by another valiant team. Their task? To gird the world with prayer.
For the most part, we don’t even know their names. Such is the case of someone who prayed on a day long ago. He went to Jesus on behalf of a friend who was sick. No one was more vital than the one who went to Jesus. John writes: “So Mary and Martha sent someone to tell Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick’” (John 11:3 NCV). Someone went to Jesus on behalf of Lazarus. And because someone went, Jesus responded! Would you be someone for someone?
From God is With You Every Day
Jeremiah 1
Demolish, and Then Start Over
1-4 The Message of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah of the family of priests who lived in Anathoth in the country of Benjamin. God’s Message began to come to him during the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amos reigned over Judah. It continued to come to him during the time Jehoiakim son of Josiah reigned over Judah. And it continued to come to him clear down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah over Judah, the year that Jerusalem was taken into exile. This is what God said:
5 “Before I shaped you in the womb,
I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations—
that’s what I had in mind for you.”
6 But I said, “Hold it, Master God! Look at me.
I don’t know anything. I’m only a boy!”
7-8 God told me, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a boy.’
I’ll tell you where to go and you’ll go there.
I’ll tell you what to say and you’ll say it.
Don’t be afraid of a soul.
I’ll be right there, looking after you.”
God’s Decree.
9-10 God reached out, touched my mouth, and said,
“Look! I’ve just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered!
See what I’ve done? I’ve given you a job to do
among nations and governments—a red-letter day!
Your job is to pull up and tear down,
take apart and demolish,
And then start over,
building and planting.”
Stand Up and Say Your Piece
11-12 God’s Message came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
I said, “A walking stick—that’s all.”
And God said, “Good eyes! I’m sticking with you.
I’ll make every word I give you come true.”
13-15 God’s Message came again: “So what do you see now?”
I said, “I see a boiling pot, tipped down toward us.”
Then God told me, “Disaster will pour out of the north
on everyone living in this land.
Watch for this: I’m calling all the kings out of the north.”
God’s Decree.
15-16 “They’ll come and set up headquarters
facing Jerusalem’s gates,
Facing all the city walls,
facing all the villages of Judah.
I’ll pronounce my judgment on the people of Judah
for walking out on me—what a terrible thing to do!—
And courting other gods with their offerings,
worshiping as gods sticks they’d carved, stones they’d painted.
17 “But you—up on your feet and get dressed for work!
Stand up and say your piece. Say exactly what I tell you to say.
Don’t pull your punches
or I’ll pull you out of the lineup.
18-19 “Stand at attention while I prepare you for your work.
I’m making you as impregnable as a castle,
Immovable as a steel post,
solid as a concrete block wall.
You’re a one-man defense system
against this culture,
Against Judah’s kings and princes,
against the priests and local leaders.
They’ll fight you, but they won’t
even scratch you.
I’ll back you up every inch of the way.”
God’s Decree.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
Read: 1 John 4:20–5:5
20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.
5 1-3 Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we’ll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.
The Power That Brings the World to Its Knees
4-5 Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.
INSIGHT:
In the gospel of John, Jesus told His disciples that love would be the identifying mark of His followers: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (13:35). He also told them: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (15:10). The connection between these two verses is as simple as it is wonderful: Loving Jesus means keeping His commands, and His command is to love. In fact, John says we cannot do one if we do not do the other. They cannot be separated—we cannot love God in one way and fellow believers in another way. Rather, “Whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:20).
A Multiplied Love
By Tim Gustafson
Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 1 John 4:21
When a woman in Karen’s church was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), things looked bad. This cruel disease affects nerves and muscles, eventually leading to paralysis. The family’s insurance wouldn’t cover home care, and the stricken woman’s husband couldn’t bear the thought of putting her in a nursing home.
As a nurse, Karen had the expertise to help and began going to the woman’s home to care for her. But she soon realized she couldn’t take care of her own family while meeting the needs of her friend, so she started teaching others in the church to help. As the disease ran its course over the next seven years, Karen trained thirty-one additional volunteers who surrounded that family with love, prayer, and practical assistance.
Ask God to show you how He wants you to use your gifts for His kingdom.
“Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister,” said John the disciple (1 John 4:21). Karen gives us a shining example of that kind of love. She had the skills, compassion, and vision to rally a church family around a hurting friend. Her love for one person in need became a multiplied love lived out by many.
How might God use your talents and abilities to serve others in need? Ask God to show you how He wants you to use your gifts for His kingdom.
To learn more, read God Is Love at discoveryseries.org/q0612.
Love your neighbor as yourself. —Jesus
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
Why Can I Not Follow You Now?
Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now?" —John 13:37
There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.
At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.
Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ‘…the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The emphasis to-day is placed on the furtherance of an organization; the note is, “We must keep this thing going.” If we are in God’s order the thing will go; if we are not in His order, it won’t. Conformed to His Image, 357 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
After Your Sun Sets - #7823
I missed that sunset a few nights ago, but I saw something just as beautiful-the afterglow. A sky painted by my favorite Artist in brilliant hues of orange and yellow. Look, I've seen a lot of sunsets all over the country and all over the world. But the show isn't over when the sun goes down. No, the sky is still glowing; often magnificently. The sun may be gone, but its aftermath is still beautifying our horizon.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "After the Sun Sets."
I've seen lives like that. My wife was a life like that. The sun set suddenly on my baby's life four months ago. But its brilliant afterglow is continuing to light up so many lives. More than even I knew. It's there in the flood of those "she changed my life" tributes I've received since she went Home.
It's made me think about what I'll leave on people's horizon when my sun sets. And about people I've known, whose life on earth is over, but who are still "afterglowing" on the landscape of my life.
Oh, I know the kind of people who bring clouds and shadows with them – sort of like emotional Pigpens. You know, Charlie Brown's friend who spreads old dirt wherever he goes. They're the gripers, the gossipers, the grimacers, the growlers, and the grumps. No glow.
But what is it about certain people that makes them a treasure to be cherished, long after they're gone? It's in a certain way, I think, that they make you feel when you're with them. They make you feel lighter. There's this contagious joy and an ever-ready smile that's like sun on the gloomiest day. Who doesn't want to be around – even seek out – that kind of person?
My Karen had that, even when she might have been weighed down with medical, financial, or work stresses. But her joy was explained by a favorite Bible verse of hers, which is our word for today from the Word of God in Nehemiah 8:10, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." That's an unsinkable buoyancy that's independent of your circumstances and it's anchored in Christ.
These "afterglow" people also make you feel safe, unlike the many who have an agenda, can't keep a confidence, make you feel judged, or later use what you tell them against you. But there are those rare people who have been for me a harbor where I know I can run in the storm. Someone I can pour out my heart to. Those people change your life.
So do the people who make you feel heard. In a world where no one can remember what you were saying when you lost your train of thought, these people can because they're all about you. Unforgettable people really listen for your heart, not just your words.
Ultimately, the "afterglow" legacy people are the ones who make you feel important. When you're with them, you feel like you're the only person in their world at that moment. I lived with and I loved this kind of woman since I was twenty years old. Long enough to know why people of every age and race and background cherish her memory.
She made us feel Jesus. She always told us, "It's not about me. It's all about Jesus." It turns out she wasn't generating all that love and joy. She was reflecting it like the moon, reflecting the glory of the sun; or in her case, the Son of God.
She felt so totally loved by Jesus, because she could say in the words of the Bible, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). You could say that too. She lived Jesus' promise to light up every life that's given to Him. He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
Have you ever experienced that? Do you feel safe and secure in the love of the One who loves you the most – Jesus? The only One who loved you enough to die for your sin? Today, if you've never given your life to Him, you've done life without Him long enough. Let this be Day 1 of life like it was meant to be. Tell Him, "Jesus, nobody loves me like you do. I'm yours. Replace the darkness with Your light."
Go to our website, and find out there exactly how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
I've seen this light Jesus talked about up close for many years. I called it her Jesus-glow. So radiant that it continues to light my life and countless others, as yours can...even after your sun has set.