Max Lucado Daily: DON’T STROLL THROUGH THE SWAMP
“You’re gonna regret it!” I waved away the warning without turning around. What was to regret? I took the shortcut.
I was on my way to a picnic. The tables sat on the other side of a marsh. The parks department had kindly constructed a bridge over the marsh. But who needed a bridge? I ventured in. The mud swallowed my feet. Squiggly things swam past me. I think I saw a set of eyeballs peering in my direction. I backpedaled—flip-flops sucked into the abyss. I exited, mud covered, mosquito bitten, and red faced.
I walked over and took my seat at the picnic table. It made for a miserable picnic, but it makes for an apt proverb. Life comes with voices. Voices lead to choices, and choices have consequences!
From God’s With You Every Day
Jeremiah 12
What Makes You Think You Can Race Against Horses?
1-4 You are right, O God, and you set things right.
I can’t argue with that. But I do have some questions:
Why do bad people have it so good?
Why do con artists make it big?
You planted them and they put down roots.
They flourished and produced fruit.
They talk as if they’re old friends with you,
but they couldn’t care less about you.
Meanwhile, you know me inside and out.
You don’t let me get by with a thing!
Make them pay for the way they live,
pay with their lives, like sheep marked for slaughter.
How long do we have to put up with this—
the country depressed, the farms in ruin—
And all because of wickedness, these wicked lives?
Even animals and birds are dying off
Because they’ll have nothing to do with God
and think God has nothing to do with them.
5-6 “So, Jeremiah, if you’re worn out in this footrace with men,
what makes you think you can race against horses?
And if you can’t keep your wits during times of calm,
what’s going to happen when troubles break loose
like the Jordan in flood?
Those closest to you, your own brothers and cousins,
are working against you.
They’re out to get you. They’ll stop at nothing.
Don’t trust them, especially when they’re smiling.
7-11 “I will abandon the House of Israel,
walk away from my beloved people.
I will turn over those I most love
to those who are her enemies.
She’s been, this one I held dear,
like a snarling lion in the jungle,
Growling and baring her teeth at me—
and I can’t take it anymore.
Has this one I hold dear become a preening peacock?
But isn’t she under attack by vultures?
Then invite all the hungry animals at large,
invite them in for a free meal!
Foreign, scavenging shepherds
will loot and trample my fields,
Turn my beautiful, well-cared-for fields
into vacant lots of tin cans and thistles.
They leave them littered with junk—
a ruined land, a land in lament.
The whole countryside is a wasteland,
and no one will really care.
12-13 “The barbarians will invade,
swarm over hills and plains.
The judgment sword of God will take its toll
from one end of the land to the other.
Nothing living will be safe.
They will plant wheat and reap weeds.
Nothing they do will work out.
They will look at their meager crops and wring their hands.
All this the result of God’s fierce anger!”
14-17 God’s Message: “Regarding all the bad neighbors who abused the land I gave to Israel as their inheritance: I’m going to pluck them out of their lands, and then pluck Judah out from among them. Once I’ve pulled the bad neighbors out, I will relent and take them tenderly to my heart and put them back where they belong, put each of them back in their home country, on their family farms. Then if they will get serious about living my way and pray to me as well as they taught my people to pray to that god Baal, everything will go well for them. But if they won’t listen, then I’ll pull them out of their land by the roots and cart them off to the dump. Total destruction!” God’s Decree.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 13, 2017
Read: Psalm 126
A Pilgrim Song
1-3 It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,
when God returned Zion’s exiles.
We laughed, we sang,
we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations—
“God was wonderful to them!”
God was wonderful to us;
we are one happy people.
4-6 And now, God, do it again—
bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.
INSIGHT:
Psalm 126 is a song of happiness on the other side of a broken heart. It celebrates the return of Jewish citizens to Jerusalem after seventy years of Babylonian exile. These lyrics are in striking contrast to Psalm 137 that recalls the tears of their years of captivity: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” (v. 1). Does either one of these two songs resonate with you today? Can you remember days when there seemed to be no way forward, until the sun of God’s provision dawned? Maybe the emotions of that moment can be seen in the joy of Psalm 126. Is there ever not a time to remember the God who is with us—to be trusted in our waiting and thanked in song when circumstances seem to shout of His goodness?
Remember When
By James Banks
The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:3
Our son wrestled with drug addiction for seven years, and during that time my wife and I experienced many difficult days. As we prayed and waited for his recovery, we learned to celebrate small victories. If nothing bad happened in a twenty-four-hour period, we would tell each other, “Today was a good day.” That short sentence became a reminder to be thankful for God’s help with the smallest things.
Tucked away in Psalm 126:3 is an even better reminder of God’s tender mercies and what they ultimately mean for us: “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” What a great verse to take to heart as we remember Jesus’s compassion for us at the cross! The difficulties of any given day cannot change the truth that come what may, our Lord has already shown us unfathomable kindness, and “his love endures forever” (Ps. 136:1).
When we cannot see God’s hand, we can trust His heart.
When we have lived through a difficult circumstance and discovered that God was faithful, keeping that in mind helps greatly the next time life’s waters turn rough. We may not know how God will get us through our circumstances, but His kindness to us in the past helps us trust that He will.
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end, our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. Robert Grant
When we cannot see God’s hand, we can trust His heart.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 13, 2017
Have You Ever Been Alone with God? (2)
When He was alone…the twelve asked Him about the parable. —Mark 4:10
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship— when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us. Notice Jesus Christ’s training of the Twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were confused. His disciples constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly explained things to them, but they didn’t understand until after they received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).
As you journey with God, the only thing He intends to be clear is the way He deals with your soul. The sorrows and difficulties in the lives of others will be absolutely confusing to you. We think we understand another person’s struggle until God reveals the same shortcomings in our lives. There are vast areas of stubbornness and ignorance the Holy Spirit has to reveal in each of us, but it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now? Or are we more concerned with our own ideas, friendships, and cares for our bodies? Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 13, 2017
The Carpenter's Miracle - #7830
When we secured land to build our Ministry Headquarters, we barely noticed the barn that was standing on that land, until God blessed us with some truckloads of donated materials which needed a place to be stored. Suddenly, we were taking a second look at this old pole barn filled with hay. The center was the only part that had walls – walls with rotting wood. The east and west sides of the barn had no walls, just some rotting old poles holding up a makeshift roof. We asked a contractor friend if there was any hope for the barn – especially since some folks had said just to bulldoze it. The contractor said the rafters and the foundation were actually good enough that something might be able to be done.
Well, what followed was hundreds of hours of volunteer labor, a cement floor, the old wood and poles being removed, walls built to enclose the entire area-including the east and west ends, a second story and stairs were built, and we put on the truckload of shingles and vinyl siding that had been donated. Now, little did we know when we first started rebuilding that barn, that would also become our temporary Headquarters while our new building was being completed. Today, when people see this nice, vinyl-sided building which is fundamental to our ministry and the things that are produced there going around the world, when they see how useful that facility has become, and especially when they see the pictures of the dilapidated old thing it was a few weeks before, it's nothing less than amazing!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Carpenter's Miracle."
I know a Carpenter who does that with people! He takes lives that seem pretty wrecked, hopeless and too far gone, and He miraculously redeems them and rebuilds them into something no one ever dreamed they could be. Jesus is the Master Carpenter, and it might be that your life is ready for His miraculous renovating power.
In our word for today from the Word of God He describes our spiritual condition before the Carpenter comes. Ephesians 2:1, 3 say, "You were dead in your...sins...we were by nature objects of wrath." See, God says all the things we've done in our life that He calls "sins" – every time we have done it our way instead of God's way – they have us under an eternal death penalty. God has to punish our sin, and the punishment is spiritual death forever.
But we're dead in our sins even before we die physically. That might be what you're feeling right now – this despair and hopelessness. Inside, you're kind of like our old barn. There are holes everywhere. You're about to give up hope of ever changing. You feel like it's all falling down. In your heart – maybe even in the eyes of others – your life seems ready for the bulldozer.
Hang on. Here comes the Carpenter. These verses from the Bible say, "But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead...By grace you have been saved, through faith." God loves you too much to lose you, so He sent His only Son, Jesus, to do the dying for all the sinning you've ever done. So you can be saved, like rescued if you commit yourself to Jesus Christ.
The result is not just that you get rescued from hell. Jesus builds you into someone more useful than you could have ever imagined. Listen. It goes on to say, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." Think of it, the wreckage of your past forgiven; a new you built by the Master Carpenter. It all begins the day you turn it all over to Jesus, which for you, could be today.
You can tell Him right now, "Jesus, I resign the running of my own life. I was made by You and for You. You died for every wrong thing I've ever done. Beginning this day, Jesus, I'm yours." Our website is about helping you begin that relationship with Jesus Christ. And I really want to urge you to go there as soon as you can today. It's ANewStory.com.
I've watched carpenters transform a structure that was ready for the bulldozer into something incredibly strong and useful. And I've watched Jesus transform lives that seemed so far gone into walking miracles of His grace. You can't imagine what you could be if you'll open yourself up to the touch of the Master's hand.
