Max Lucado Daily: THE PROMISED LAND
God has a promised land for you to take!
I sat across the table from a man in midlife misery. He described his life with words like stuck, rut, and stalled. He’s a Christian, but he can’t tell you the last time he defeated a temptation or experienced an answered prayer. Twenty years into his faith and he fights the same battles he was fighting the day he came to Christ. It’s as if the door to spiritual growth has a lock and everyone has the key but him.
Joshua 21:43 says, “So the Lord gave Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give. . .and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.”
The promised land! God’s vision for your life. Yours for the taking. Expect to be challenged. The enemy won’t go down without a fight. But your glory days await you!
From Glory Days
1 Timothy 3
Leadership in the Church
1-7 If anyone wants to provide leadership in the church, good! But there are preconditions: A leader must be well-thought-of, committed to his wife, cool and collected, accessible, and hospitable. He must know what he’s talking about, not be overfond of wine, not pushy but gentle, not thin-skinned, not money-hungry. He must handle his own affairs well, attentive to his own children and having their respect. For if someone is unable to handle his own affairs, how can he take care of God’s church? He must not be a new believer, lest the position go to his head and the Devil trip him up. Outsiders must think well of him, or else the Devil will figure out a way to lure him into his trap.
8-13 The same goes for those who want to be servants in the church: serious, not deceitful, not too free with the bottle, not in it for what they can get out of it. They must be reverent before the mystery of the faith, not using their position to try to run things. Let them prove themselves first. If they show they can do it, take them on. No exceptions are to be made for women—same qualifications: serious, dependable, not sharp-tongued, not overfond of wine. Servants in the church are to be committed to their spouses, attentive to their own children, and diligent in looking after their own affairs. Those who do this servant work will come to be highly respected, a real credit to this Jesus-faith.
14-16 I hope to visit you soon, but just in case I’m delayed, I’m writing this letter so you’ll know how things ought to go in God’s household, this God-alive church, bastion of truth. This Christian life is a great mystery, far exceeding our understanding, but some things are clear enough:
He appeared in a human body,
was proved right by the invisible Spirit,
was seen by angels.
He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples,
believed in all over the world,
taken up into heavenly glory.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 17, 2017
Read: John 14:1–4
The Road
1-4 “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
INSIGHT:
This imagery of a prepared place in the Father’s house also brought comfort to Israel’s shepherd-king, David, who sang, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Ps. 23:6). Like Jesus’s words in John 14, David’s words carry both a present reality and a future hope. The present reality of a life resting in the goodness and lovingkindness of the Father is directly linked to trusting Jesus in life’s storms (John 14:1). And the forever promise of a place in the house of the Lord is there to offer us hope when despair might become overwhelming. This is the rich sense of home that can be so wonderful. We will never fully and completely know the peace we long for until we find ourselves at peace in Him.
Are there situations in your life that make the reminder of God’s presence particularly comforting? Thank God for His goodness and loving-kindness.
Adapted from Discovery Series booklet Finding Peace in a Troubled World. Read it at discoveryseries.org/q1126.
At Home With Jesus
By Amy Boucher Pye |
I go and prepare a place for you. John 14:3
“There’s no place like home.” The phrase reflects a deeply rooted yearning within us to have a place to rest, be, and belong. Jesus addressed this desire for rootedness when, after He and His friends had their last supper together, He spoke about His impending death and resurrection. He promised that although He would go away, He would come back for them. And He would prepare a room for them. A dwelling-place. A home.
He made this place for them—and us—through fulfilling the requirements of God’s law when He died on the cross as the sinless man. He assured His disciples that if He went to the trouble of creating this home, that of course He would come back for them and not leave them alone. They didn’t need to fear or be worried about their lives, whether on earth or in heaven.
We belong with Jesus, upheld by His love and surrounded in His peace.
We can take comfort and assurance from Jesus’s words, for we believe and trust that He makes a home for us; that He makes His home within us (see John 14:23); and that He has gone ahead of us to prepare our heavenly home. Whatever sort of physical place we live in, we belong with Jesus, upheld by His love and surrounded in His peace. With Him, there’s no place like home.
Lord Jesus Christ, if and when we feel homeless, remind us that You are our home. May we share this sense of belonging with those we meet.
Jesus prepares a place for us to live forever.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 17, 2017
All or Nothing?
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment…and plunged into the sea. —John 21:7
Have you ever had a crisis in your life in which you deliberately, earnestly, and recklessly abandoned everything? It is a crisis of the will. You may come to that point many times externally, but it will amount to nothing. The true deep crisis of abandonment, or total surrender, is reached internally, not externally. The giving up of only external things may actually be an indication of your being in total bondage.
Have you deliberately committed your will to Jesus Christ? It is a transaction of the will, not of emotion; any positive emotion that results is simply a superficial blessing arising out of the transaction. If you focus your attention on the emotion, you will never make the transaction. Do not ask God what the transaction is to be, but make the determination to surrender your will regarding whatever you see, whether it is in the shallow or the deep, profound places internally.
If you have heard Jesus Christ’s voice on the waves of the sea, you can let your convictions and your consistency take care of themselves by concentrating on maintaining your intimate relationship to Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. Not Knowing Whither, 903 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 17, 2017
Giving A Man A Makeover - #7896
I guess TV talk shows run out of material sometimes. You can tell when they're desperate. But one day I guess I turned on some talk show that demonstrates my point. They had four women on the show who were, let's say, average looking - which is what most everybody is. But they sent them backstage for a while to give them what's called a makeover. I guess that woman puts herself into someone else's hands - someone who can skillfully change her eye makeup, her coloring, her lipstick, her hairstyle, and her wardrobe. And voila - out comes this no-longer plain-looking lady. The difference can be amazing! Funniest thing, though, I've never heard of them giving a man a makeover. I guess they do; I've never heard of it. Although, I'll tell you what, a lot of us could really use one.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Giving A Man A Makeover."
Men aren't easy to make over. No, as you have probably never noticed, a man can be pretty stubborn about changing. If you're a woman, my guess is that there's a man in your life who could use a little work...right? Not necessarily physically. He wouldn't look that good in mascara anyway. I'm talking about a change in his personality, his communication, his spiritual leadership, his attitudes, his bad habits. How do you give a man a makeover?
Our word for today from the Word of God - Titus 2:4-5. It's in God's instructions to older women on what they should pass on to the younger women they know. Here's what it says, "Train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the Word of God."
Notice the first thing the veterans are to teach the rookies - to "love their husbands" - not to change their husbands. I like what Billy Graham's wife Ruth has said, "It is my job to love Billy. It is God's job to change him." Actually, that principle applies to any significant male in your life - a son, a father, or a brother. Let God change him.
You say, "Yeah, but what do I do to get him to change?" Love the guy! A woman is a powerful force in changing a man if she has made that man feel safe in her love. As self-assured as we may try to act, we guys are basically insecure little boys inside. And a man's usually not going to risk changing - and risk is what it is to change - until he feels like there's a woman who will love him whether he changes or not.
Unfortunately, a lot of women want to give God a little help in reconstructing the old boy. So she brings out her hammer and chisel - nagging him to change, pushing, criticizing, attacking, or putting him down. She's making the guy her personal makeover project, "I'll change him." Not likely. Oh, I understand how men can be frustrating and stubborn and harsh, and don't talk, and don't communicate, and don't express. Oh, I understand the frustrations, but those tools - the hammer and chisel - just won't change him.
All those pushing tactics make a man feel cornered, attacked, less secure and therefore, less likely to change. You might very well ask then, "If nagging and pushing doesn't change him, what will?" Loving him and making him feel safe by loving him in his language of love.
Like praising his strengths often; complimenting even a little progress in an area where he's trying to change, holding your tongue when it's going to tear him down, sharing gently your feelings when you're frustrated, not his failings. Let that man know how much you need him. And, above all, talk to God about this man. He is not only the Creator, He's the Re-Creator.
On these visits we talk to men a lot about their responsibility. But you know what? This is God's instruction to women as He includes it in His Word. Important question: Does the man you want to be different feel safe in your love? Does he feel appreciated by you? I hope he does.
The makeover is God's job. Your job is to provide the climate where a man might dare to change. I know what that climate is - unconditional love.
