Max Lucado Daily: YOU CAN LIVE FORGIVEN
Do you know God’s grace? If you do, you can live boldly, live robustly; his safety net will break your fall. Nothing fosters courage like a clear grasp of grace. And nothing fosters fear like an ignorance of mercy.
May I speak candidly? If you haven’t accepted God’s forgiveness, you’re doomed to live in fear. No pill, pep talk, or possession can set the sinner’s heart at ease. You may deaden the fear, but you can’t remove it. Only God’s grace can. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:8 NKJV).
Your prayer can be as simple as. . .”Dear Father, please forgive me. I place my soul in your hands and trust in your grace. Through Jesus I pray. Amen.”
Then having received God’s forgiveness, live forgiven!
From Max on Life
Jeremiah 52
The Destruction of Jerusalem and Exile of Judah
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.
2 As far as God was concerned, Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.
3-5 The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God’s anger. God turned his back on them as an act of judgment.
Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it. He arrived on the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah’s reign. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah).
6-8 By the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn’t so much as a crumb of bread for anyone. Then the Babylonians broke through the city walls. Under cover of the night darkness, the entire Judean army fled through an opening in the wall (it was the gate between the two walls above the King’s Garden). They slipped through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the Jordan into the Arabah Valley, but the Babylonians were in full pursuit. They caught up with them in the Plains of Jericho. But by then Zedekiah’s army had deserted and was scattered.
9-11 The Babylonians captured Zedekiah and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath, who tried and sentenced him on the spot. The king of Babylon then killed Zedekiah’s sons right before his eyes. The summary murder of his sons was the last thing Zedekiah saw, for they then blinded him. The king of Babylon followed that up by killing all the officials of Judah. Securely handcuffed, Zedekiah was hauled off to Babylon. The king of Babylon threw him in prison, where he stayed until the day he died.
12-16 In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon’s chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned the Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city. He burned the whole place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls. Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile. He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields.
17-19 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the huge bronze basin (the Sea) that were in the Temple of God, and hauled the bronze off to Babylon. They also took the various bronze-crafted liturgical accessories, as well as the gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls, used in the services of Temple worship. The king’s deputy didn’t miss a thing. He took every scrap of precious metal he could find.
20-23 The amount of bronze they got from the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls that supported the Sea, and the ten washstands that Solomon had made for the Temple of God was enormous. They couldn’t weigh it all! Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high with a circumference of eighteen feet. The pillars were hollow, the bronze a little less than an inch thick. Each pillar was topped with an ornate capital of bronze pomegranates and filigree, which added another seven and a half feet to its height. There were ninety-six pomegranates evenly spaced—in all, a hundred pomegranates worked into the filigree.
24-27 The king’s deputy took a number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate priest, three wardens, the chief remaining army officer, seven of the king’s counselors who happened to be in the city, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and sixty men of standing from among the people who were still there. Nebuzaradan the king’s deputy marched them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood.
Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.
28 3,023 men of Judah were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in the seventh year of his reign.
29 832 from Jerusalem were taken in the eighteenth year of his reign.
30 745 men from Judah were taken off by Nebuzaradan, the king’s chief deputy, in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year.
The total number of exiles was 4,600.
31-34 When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the political prisoners held in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and from then on ate his meals in company with the king. The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably for the rest of his life.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
Read: Philippians 2:1–11
He Took on the Status of a Slave
1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
INSIGHT:
The church at Philippi, established by Paul during his second missionary journey, was a growing and faithful community that had actively supported Paul’s ministry (Phil. 1:5; 4:15–18). In this thank-you letter, Paul encouraged the Philippians to continue to grow and mature in their faith, even in the midst of persecution. He exhorted them, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (1:27), so that they would “shine . . . like stars in the sky” (2:15). He urged them to imitate Christ in sacrificial love, unity, humility, and service.
Painting a Portrait
By Bill Crowder
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5
The National Portrait Gallery in London, England, houses a treasure of paintings from across the centuries, including 166 images of Winston Churchill, 94 of William Shakespeare, and 20 of George Washington. With the older portraits, we may wonder: Is that what these individuals really looked like?
For instance, there are eight paintings of Scottish patriot William Wallace (c. 1270–1305), but we obviously don’t have photographs to compare them to. How do we know if the artists accurately represented Wallace?
Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for us motivates us to sacrifice ourselves for others.
Something similar might be happening with the likeness of Jesus. Without realizing it, those who believe in Him are leaving an impression of Him on others. Not with brushes and oils, but with attitudes, actions, and relationships.
Are we painting a portrait that represents the likeness of His heart? This was the concern of the apostle Paul. “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,” he wrote (Phil. 2:5). With a desire to accurately represent our Lord, he urged His followers to reflect the humility, self-sacrifice, and compassion of Jesus for others.
It has been said, “We are the only Jesus some people will ever see.” As we “in humility value others above [ourselves]” (v. 3), we will show the world the heart and attitude of Jesus Himself.
Father, please build the heart of Christ into my heart that those around me will see Him clearly and desire to know Him too.
How can you show Christ in your life to others in your community? Share at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
Christ’s sacrifice of Himself motivates us to sacrifice ourselves for others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
The Surrendered Life
I have been crucified with Christ… —Galatians 2:20
To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things. Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else. The first thing we must surrender is all of our pretense or deceit. What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty, or our efforts to do better, but real solid sin. Actually, that is all He can take from us. And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness. But we must surrender all pretense that we are anything, and give up all our claims of even being worthy of God’s consideration.
Once we have done that, the Spirit of God will show us what we need to surrender next. Along each step of this process, we will have to give up our claims to our rights to ourselves. Are we willing to surrender our grasp on all that we possess, our desires, and everything else in our lives? Are we ready to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?
We will suffer a sharp painful disillusionment before we fully surrender. When people really see themselves as the Lord sees them, it is not the terribly offensive sins of the flesh that shock them, but the awful nature of the pride of their own hearts opposing Jesus Christ. When they see themselves in the light of the Lord, the shame, horror, and desperate conviction hit home for them.
If you are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, make a determination to go on through the crisis, surrendering all that you have and all that you are to Him. And God will then equip you to do all that He requires of you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
How Your Life Can Really Deliver - #7868
Boy, at Christmastime I think they're some of the busiest people there are – the men and women in those brown trucks that fly through our streets -- the UPS people. And countless Post Office carriers are carrying so many packages to so many places in such a short time! I'll bet they sleep well, but not a whole lot at that time of year. As important as their service is, we don't make a big deal of the deliverer when he comes to the door. "Oh, hello delivery person, you are the greatest! What a guy! Tell me about the wife and the kids. Come in for dinner, you awesome dude (or "dudette")." No, we know he didn't make the gift. She didn't buy the gift. They only delivered the gift!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Your Life Can Really Deliver."
If you belong to Jesus, you've got a great assignment for Him – to be His "UPS" man or woman. In other words, He's asking you to be His delivery person – to deliver to people gifts from Him. Which means that no matter how tough your life is right now, no matter how useless or unimportant you may feel sometimes, God's got something very important for you to do.
It's the same mission He gave the great Apostle Paul. He said in Romans 1:11, which is our word for today from the Word of God that he longed to be with the Roman believers "so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong." He just kept delivering gifts from God to people; a word of encouragement, a word of comfort, a challenge to be what God had called them to be, or the Gospel of Jesus, which has the power to change someone's life and someone's eternity.
Sometimes people make a big deal over us because of some good thing we did. And we can start thinking, "You know, I am pretty good at this. I'm really... I'm pretty important." That makes no more sense than the delivery person taking credit for the gift that they're bringing. They didn't make it, they didn't provide it. They just delivered it! That's all we do. But God allows us to enrich people's lives every day if we'll faithfully look for opportunities to deliver His love to someone. Scripture says, "You will not take pride in one man against another. What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" (1 Corinthians 4:6-7).
The good news is that a lot of people who think they're second-string Christians, watching God's varsity play the game, they don't realize who they really are. God says to every one of His children, "You are Christ's ambassador" (2 Corinthians 5:20). It goes with having Jesus. You don't have to be some spiritual superstar or charismatic personality. You are, in God's words, "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).
If you've got Jesus, then you've got His love in you to deliver to people around you. How are you doing with that? You've got His joy, you've got His encouragement, and you've got His comfort, His eternal life and the way to have eternal life. He's given you His uniform. He's put in your hands much-needed gifts for the people in your personal world.
Don't just sit in your driveway with a truckload of gifts that God has given you to deliver. It's not about what you have to give people. It's about what He has to give them. But He gives His gifts through human messengers – like you. Every new morning try this, "Lord, help me deliver some love from You to some people today, and help me see the people who need it." He makes the gift. He provides the gift. You just deliver it, and in so doing, you'll make each person richer, and you'll make you richer, too.