Max Lucado Daily: INVOKE HIS NAME
We are never without hope because we are never without prayer. Prayer confesses: God can handle it. And since he can, I have hope! When we pray in the name of Jesus, we come to God on the basis of Jesus’ accomplishment. Scripture says, “Since we have a great high priest [Jesus] over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:21-22 HCSB).
Some say, “Prayer changes things because it changes us.” I agree but only in part. Prayer changes things because prayer appeals to the top power in the universe. It is the yes to God’s invitation to invoke his name. Prayer moves the world because prayer moves the heart of God.
From God is With You Every Day
Jeremiah 36
Reading God’s Message
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah received this Message from God:
2 “Get a scroll and write down everything I’ve told you regarding Israel and Judah and all the other nations from the time I first started speaking to you in Josiah’s reign right up to the present day.
3 “Maybe the community of Judah will finally get it, finally understand the catastrophe that I’m planning for them, turn back from their bad lives, and let me forgive their perversity and sin.”
4 So Jeremiah called in Baruch son of Neriah. Jeremiah dictated and Baruch wrote down on a scroll everything that God had said to him.
5-6 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I’m blacklisted. I can’t go into God’s Temple, so you’ll have to go in my place. Go into the Temple and read everything you’ve written at my dictation. Wait for a day of fasting when everyone is there to hear you. And make sure that all the people who come from the Judean villages hear you.
7 “Maybe, just maybe, they’ll start praying and God will hear their prayers. Maybe they’ll turn back from their bad lives. This is no light matter. God has certainly let them know how angry he is!”
8 Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do. In the Temple of God he read the Message of God from the scroll.
9 It came about in December of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah that all the people of Jerusalem, along with all the people from the Judean villages, were there in Jerusalem to observe a fast to God.
10 Baruch took the scroll to the Temple and read out publicly the words of Jeremiah. He read from the meeting room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary of state, which was in the upper court right next to the New Gate of God’s Temple. Everyone could hear him.
11-12 The moment Micaiah the son of Gemariah heard what was being read from the scroll—God’s Message!—he went straight to the palace and to the chambers of the secretary of state where all the government officials were holding a meeting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other government officials.
13 Micaiah reported everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll as the officials listened.
14 Immediately they dispatched Jehudi son of Nethaniah, son of Semaiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch, ordering him, “Take the scroll that you have read to the people and bring it here.” So Baruch went and retrieved the scroll.
15 The officials told him, “Sit down. Read it to us, please.” Baruch read it.
16 When they had heard it all, they were upset. They talked it over. “We’ve got to tell the king all this.”
17 They asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Was it at Jeremiah’s dictation?”
18 Baruch said, “That’s right. Every word right from his own mouth. And I wrote it down, word for word, with pen and ink.”
19 The government officials told Baruch, “You need to get out of here. Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah. Don’t let anyone know where you are!”
20-21 The officials went to the court of the palace to report to the king, having put the scroll for safekeeping in the office of Elishama the secretary of state. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He brought it from the office of Elishama the secretary. Jehudi then read it to the king and the officials who were in the king’s service.
22-23 It was December. The king was sitting in his winter quarters in front of a charcoal fire. After Jehudi would read three or four columns, the king would cut them off the scroll with his pocketknife and throw them in the fire. He continued in this way until the entire scroll had been burned up in the fire.
24-26 Neither the king nor any of his officials showed the slightest twinge of conscience as they listened to the messages read. Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah tried to convince the king not to burn the scroll, but he brushed them off. He just plowed ahead and ordered Prince Jerahameel, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Jeremiah the prophet and his secretary Baruch. But God had hidden them away.
27-28 After the king had burned the scroll that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, Jeremiah received this Message from God: “Get another blank scroll and do it all over again. Write out everything that was in that first scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.
29 “And send this personal message to Jehoiakim king of Judah: ‘God says, You had the gall to burn this scroll and then the nerve to say, “What kind of nonsense is this written here—that the king of Babylon will come and destroy this land and kill everything in it?”
30-31 “‘Well, do you want to know what God says about Jehoiakim king of Judah? This: No descendant of his will ever rule from David’s throne. His corpse will be thrown in the street and left unburied, exposed to the hot sun and the freezing night. I will punish him and his children and the officials in his government for their blatant sin. I’ll let loose on them and everyone in Jerusalem the doomsday disaster of which I warned them but they spit at.’”
32 So Jeremiah went and got another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah, his secretary. At Jeremiah’s dictation he again wrote down everything that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. There were also generous additions, but of the same kind of thing.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Read: Psalm 32:1–11
A David Psalm
Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—
you get a fresh start,
your slate’s wiped clean.
2 Count yourself lucky—
God holds nothing against you
and you’re holding nothing back from him.
3 When I kept it all inside,
my bones turned to powder,
my words became daylong groans.
4 The pressure never let up;
all the juices of my life dried up.
5 Then I let it all out;
I said, “I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God.”
Suddenly the pressure was gone—
my guilt dissolved,
my sin disappeared.
6 These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we’ll be on high ground, untouched.
7 God’s my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.
8 Let me give you some good advice;
I’m looking you in the eye
and giving it to you straight:
9 “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle
to stay on track.”
10 God-defiers are always in trouble;
God-affirmers find themselves loved
every time they turn around.
11 Celebrate God.
Sing together—everyone!
All you honest hearts, raise the roof!
INSIGHT:
Psalm 32 is an interesting look into the covenant relationship the believer has with the living God. King David, the writer of this psalm, is aware of his own personal sins and the need for confession and forgiveness. This spiritual connection with the living God is not simply a positive experience but includes God’s chastisement that leads to confession and restoration (vv. 4–5). Yet even within the ups and downs of our walk of faith, we have the assurance of God’s watchful care and provision.
For further study on the subject of forgiveness, check out the Discovery Series booklet The Forgiveness of God at discoveryseries.org/q0602.
Always in His Care
By David McCasland
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Psalm 32:8
On the day our youngest daughter was flying from Munich to Barcelona, I visited my favorite flight tracking website to follow her progress. After I entered her flight number, my computer screen showed that her flight had crossed Austria and was skirting the northern part of Italy. From there the plane would fly over the Mediterranean, south of the French Riviera toward Spain, and was scheduled to arrive on time. It seemed that the only thing I didn’t know was what the flight attendants were serving for lunch!
Why did I care about my daughter’s location and circumstances? Because I love her. I care about who she is, what she’s doing, and where she’s going in life.
Whatever our circumstances today, we can rely on God’s presence and care.
In Psalm 32, David celebrated the marvel of God’s forgiveness, guidance, and concern for us. Unlike a human father, God knows every detail of our lives and the deepest needs of our hearts. The Lord’s promise to us is, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you” (v. 8).
Whatever our circumstances today, we can rely on God’s presence and care because “the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him” (v. 10).
Dear Father in heaven, thank You for watching over me in love and guiding me along Your path today.
We are never out of God’s sight and His loving care.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
The Call of God
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel… —1 Corinthians 1:17
Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel. But remember what Paul means by “the gospel,” namely, the reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are inclined to make sanctification the goal of our preaching. Paul refers to personal experiences only by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are not commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification— we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (see John 12:32). It is an injustice to say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole and restored before the throne of God. The fact that we can experience redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a byproduct and not the goal of redemption. If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.
The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreak, disillusionment, and tribulation for only one reason— these things kept him unmovable in his devotion to the gospel of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. Disciples Indeed, 393 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Relationships and Regular Maintenance - #7843
If you've got a house, you might complain every once in a while about the constant upkeep. I think it seems like as soon as you get one thing cared for, something else needs attention, right; the windows, the roof, the yard, the plumbing, the paint. Well, be glad you're not in charge of the maintenance of the Golden Gate Bridge. Not long ago I was standing by San Francisco Bay, and I was admiring that really impressive beauty of that great bridge, when someone told me what it takes to keep it impressive. Like thirty-five painters! Every day! That's all they do! The trucks roll out early every morning with another load of that distinctive orange paint and for eight hours a day those thirty-five painters are somewhere on that bridge, keeping it in good shape. They say things deteriorate really fast, and it takes constant effort to maintain that beauty.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Relationships and Regular Maintenance."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 27:23-24. It's about regular maintenance and the price of neglecting it. "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks; give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations." I think those bridge painters would understand the spirit of that. If you don't take care of something beautiful, it won't stay beautiful.
Something like your marriage for example, or your relationship with your son or your daughter, or with your spiritual brothers and sisters, or with your Lord. Actually, any important relationship. Things deteriorate so quickly! That's why you have to, as the Bible says, "give careful attention" to relationships and responsibilities that are in your care.
Some of us try to send the "paint crew" out for an occasional painting binge. But that's not going to do it. Daily agendas pile up, daily needs pile up, daily problems accumulate into unsolvable nightmares and bingeing won't be enough. The key word is regular maintenance!
That means telling people you love them on a regular basis. You don't do it like this, "I love you until further notice. If I ever change my mind, you'll be the first to know!" Great! That doesn't work. It means regular communication, checking on how that person is doing and how they're feeling. Regular listening, of course, is necessary because, like the weather, a person's situation changes regularly-maybe within an hour or two even.
And, like those Golden Gate Bridge warriors, there has to be regular fixing of breaks and misunderstandings. When the maintenance piles up, something that was beautiful can be lost, including your closeness to your Savior. It may be you've been neglecting Him lately. Your time with Him has gotten increasingly eroded, postponed, canceled. And the dark side of you is surfacing more and more the longer you neglect the beautifying that comes from regular time with Jesus. And what was once so warm and so real between you, is it drifting into something like cold and official? Your most important relationship is like all the others. It deteriorates quickly if you don't take care of it regularly.
So is there someone in your life that is suffering from your neglect? Actually, you're suffering from that neglect, too, as the relationship that was so close becomes more strained, more distant, or more stressed. The good news-this is not irreversible. You need to determine that today will be a turning point day, where you take control of the pressures that are keeping you from a relationship or a person that needs you and that you need.
Bridges and relationships have something in common. If you want them to stay beautiful, you have to take care of them. Regular maintenance. That's the price for having something lasting and something beautiful.