Max Lucado Daily:
ALL HAVE FALLEN SHORT
Simply put—we’re not good enough to go to heaven! So what can we do? Perhaps if we do enough good deeds, they will offset our bad deeds. The question then surfaces: how many good deeds do we need to do? If I spend one year being greedy, how many years should I be generous? No one knows how many good deeds it takes to offset the bad. A rule sheet can’t be found—simply because it doesn’t exist.
God doesn’t operate this way. All we can do is ask for mercy. And God, because of his kindness, gives it. God turned over our sins to his Son. His Son, Jesus Christ, died for our sins. He did what we could not do so that we might become what we dare not dream: citizens of heaven!
From Max on Life
Hebrews 9
A Visible Parable
1-5 That first plan contained directions for worship, and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and “the bread of presence” were placed in it. This was called “the Holy Place.” Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called “the Holy of Holies.” In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-wing-shadowed mercy seat. But we don’t have time to comment on these now.
6-10 After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.
Pointing to the Realities of Heaven
11-15 But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.
16-17 Like a will that takes effect when someone dies, the new covenant was put into action at Jesus’ death. His death marked the transition from the old plan to the new one, canceling the old obligations and accompanying sins, and summoning the heirs to receive the eternal inheritance that was promised them. He brought together God and his people in this new way.
18-22 Even the first plan required a death to set it in motion. After Moses had read out all the terms of the plan of the law—God’s “will”—he took the blood of sacrificed animals and, in a solemn ritual, sprinkled the document and the people who were its beneficiaries. And then he attested its validity with the words, “This is the blood of the covenant commanded by God.” He did the same thing with the place of worship and its furniture. Moses said to the people, “This is the blood of the covenant God has established with you.” Practically everything in a will hinges on a death. That’s why blood, the evidence of death, is used so much in our tradition, especially regarding forgiveness of sins.
23-26 That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren’t needed anymore, having served their purpose. For Christ didn’t enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.
27-28 Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 02, 2017
Read: Hebrews 2:9–18
The Salvation Pioneer
5-9 God didn’t put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we’re dealing with here. It says in Scripture,
What is man and woman that you bother with them;
why take a second look their way?
You made them not quite as high as angels,
bright with Eden’s dawn light;
Then you put them in charge
of your entire handcrafted world.
When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don’t see it yet, don’t see everything under human jurisdiction. What we do see is Jesus, made “not quite as high as angels,” and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory “bright with Eden’s dawn light.” In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.
10-13 It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, saying,
I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you;
I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.
Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,
Even I live by placing my trust in God.
And yet again,
I’m here with the children God gave me.
14-15 Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
16-18 It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.
INSIGHT
Hebrews 2:5–18 explains why Jesus being fully human is so significant. The author of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 8 to show that God from the beginning intended humanity to rule over creation. Although we are not yet ruling fully as God intended, the resurrected Jesus has been crowned king of creation and someday we too will reign with Him. Hebrews 2:12 quotes Psalm 22:22, which describes Jesus celebrating in worship with His brothers and sisters. Because Jesus is not only our Lord but also our fully human “brother,” we will someday rule alongside Him.
One of Us
By David McCasland
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:18
At the memorial service for Charles Schulz (1922–2000), creator of the beloved Peanuts comic strip, friend and fellow cartoonist Cathy Guisewite spoke of his humanity and compassion. “He gave everyone in the world characters who knew exactly how all of us felt, who made us feel we were never alone. And then he gave the cartoonist himself, and he made us feel that we were never alone. . . . He encouraged us. He commiserated with us. He made us feel he was exactly like us.”
When we feel that no one understands or can help us, we are reminded that Jesus gave us Himself, and He knows exactly who we are and what we are facing today.
Jesus knows exactly who we are and what we are facing today.
Hebrews 2:9–18 presents the remarkable truth that Jesus fully shared our humanity during His life on earth (v. 14). He “taste[d] death for everyone” (v. 9), broke the power of Satan (v. 14), and freed “those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (v. 15). Jesus was made like us, “fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God” (v. 17). Thank You, Lord, for sharing our humanity so that we might know Your help today and live in Your presence forever.
What fears and concerns do you have? What should you do with those fears? (1 Peter 5:6–7). What does the Lord promise to do for you? (Heb. 13:5).
For further study read Is Jesus God? at discoveryseries.org/q0205.
No one understands like Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 02, 2017
Have You Felt the Pain Inflicted by the Lord?
He said to him the third time, "…do you love Me?" —John 21:17
Have you ever felt the pain, inflicted by the Lord, at the very center of your being, deep down in the most sensitive area of your life? The devil never inflicts pain there, and neither can sin nor human emotions. Nothing can cut through to that part of our being but the Word of God. “Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ ” Yet he was awakened to the fact that at the center of his personal life he was devoted to Jesus. And then he began to see what Jesus’ patient questioning meant. There was not the slightest bit of doubt left in Peter’s mind; he could never be deceived again. And there was no need for an impassioned response; no need for immediate action or an emotional display. It was a revelation to him to realize how much he did love the Lord, and with amazement he simply said, “Lord, You know all things….” Peter began to see how very much he did love Jesus, and there was no need to say, “Look at this or that as proof of my love.” Peter was beginning to discover within himself just how much he really did love the Lord. He discovered that his eyes were so fixed on Jesus Christ that he saw no one else in heaven above or on the earth below. But he did not know it until the probing, hurting questions of the Lord were asked. The Lord’s questions always reveal the true me to myself.
Oh, the wonder of the patient directness and skill of Jesus Christ with Peter! Our Lord never asks questions until the perfect time. Rarely, but probably once in each of our lives, He will back us into a corner where He will hurt us with His piercing questions. Then we will realize that we do love Him far more deeply than our words can ever say.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 02, 2017
Slowing Down So You Can Hear - #7864
I hear a lot of wives complain about communication being a problem in their marriage. It sure was for my wife and me on a trip we took one summer. We had a lot of miles to cover in our van in one day - one very hot day. The day the air conditioner decided not to work, which meant we had to travel with all the windows down or have a sauna on wheels for the next 12 hours. I had a lot of work to do on this trip, and my wife enjoyed driving, so she was in front where it's really good for the driver to be, and I was in the back of the van with my computer. Now, about communication? No way. No matter how important the information was, we couldn't possibly yell loud enough to overcome the wind. All you could see was lips moving; it was like a silent movie. So, we had to save up anything we wanted to say for toll booths, traffic jams, and any place where we had to slow down. Those were the only times we could hear anything!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Slowing Down So You Can Hear."
Our word for today from the Word of God, we're in 1 Kings 19:11-13. God's prophet Elijah has been on a fast track of activity and now he's hit this time of deep emotional turbulence. He really needs to hear from the Lord. He does, but not in the form he might have expected.
Here's what the Bible says, "The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.' Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave." That day, in a quiet whisper from heaven, God's servant received just the word he needed from God.
God often whispers. And you've got to be quiet to hear what He has for your heart. We like the dramatic spiritual experiences – the winds and the quakes and the fire. And sometimes God does speak to us through the high-octane spiritual moments. But often what our heart most needs to hear comes in His gentle whisper. And like that day of the roaring wind in our van, you can only hear what He's trying to say when you slow down.
Which you may not have done much lately. Which may explain why your soul is getting so dry and brittle and why there's confusion instead of direction, why there's weakness instead of power, more frustration than peace. You've been traveling too fast to hear the whisper of God.
God's message to you is, "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps.46:10). You've just got to find some time when you and the Lord can have some quality time. You've got to get back your daily quiet time with Him. You've got to get those Sabbaths that you've been losing or neglecting.
And it may be that God has brought some of the difficulty of recent days into your life for the express purpose of slowing you down so you can hear Him. God uses a lot of instruments as brakes on our overheated lives like an illness, an injury, the loss of your job, a financial crisis, a crisis in your family. When we won't put on the brakes, the Father who loves us will. If He has you in a slow down zone right now, don't fight it. Don't just endure it. Open up your heart to your Lord to hear what you might never have been able to hear at 70 MPH.
In our high speed lives, the times to slow down become very important. They might be the only times you can really hear what God and others who love you have to say.