Max Lucado Daily: LOVING AS GOD LOVES
I’m supposed to love my neighbor? Okay, by golly, I will. So we try. We’re going to love if it kills us! And it may do just that. Could it be that the secret to giving love is to first receive it? The Bible says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32 NIV).
Finding it hard to put others first? Think of the way Christ put you first. Scripture says, “Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God” (Phil. 2:6 NLT). Can’t we love like this? Not without God’s help we can’t. But if we haven’t received these things ourselves, how can we give them to others? Would we love as God loves? Then, start by receiving God’s love!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 14
Idols in Their Hearts
1-5 Some of the leaders of Israel approached me and sat down with me. God’s Message came to me: “Son of Man, these people have installed idols in their hearts. They have embraced the wickedness that will ruin them. Why should I even bother with their prayers? Therefore tell them, ‘The Message of God, the Master: All in Israel who install idols in their hearts and embrace the wickedness that will ruin them and still have the gall to come to a prophet, be on notice: I, God, will step in and personally answer them as they come dragging along their mob of idols. I am ready to go to work on the hearts of the house of Israel, all of whom have left me for their idols.’
6-8 “Therefore, say to the house of Israel: ‘God, the Master, says, Repent! Turn your backs on your no-god idols. Turn your backs on all your outrageous obscenities. To every last person from the house of Israel, including any of the resident aliens who live in Israel—all who turn their backs on me and embrace idols, who install the wickedness that will ruin them at the center of their lives and then have the gall to go to the prophet to ask me questions—I, God, will step in and give the answer myself. I’ll oppose those people to their faces, make an example of them—a warning lesson—and get rid of them so you will realize that I am God.
9-11 “‘If a prophet is deceived and tells these idolaters the lies they want to hear, I, God, get blamed for those lies. He won’t get by with it. I’ll grab him by the scruff of the neck and get him out of there. They’ll be equally guilty, the prophet and the one who goes to the prophet, so that the house of Israel will never again wander off my paths and make themselves filthy in their rebellions, but will rather be my people, just as I am their God. Decree of God, the Master.’”
12-14 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, when a country sins against me by living faithlessly and I reach out and destroy its food supply by bringing on a famine, wiping out humans and animals alike, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job—the Big Three—were alive at the time, it wouldn’t do the population any good. Their righteousness would only save their own lives.” Decree of God, the Master.
15-16 “Or, if I make wild animals go through the country so that everyone has to leave and the country becomes wilderness and no one dares enter it anymore because of the wild animals, even if these three men were living there, as sure as I am the living God, neither their sons nor daughters would be rescued, but only those three, and the country would revert to wilderness.
17-18 “Or, if I bring war on that country and give the order, ‘Let the killing begin!’ leaving both people and animals dead, even if those three men were alive at the time, as sure as I am the living God, neither sons nor daughters would be rescued, but only these three.
19-20 “Or, if I visit a deadly disease on that country, pouring out my lethal anger, killing both people and animals, and Noah, Daniel, and Job happened to be alive at the time, as sure as I am the living God, not a son, not a daughter, would be rescued. Only these three would be delivered because of their righteousness.
21-23 “Now then, that’s the picture,” says God, the Master, “once I’ve sent my four catastrophic judgments on Jerusalem—war, famine, wild animals, disease—to kill off people and animals alike. But look! Believe it or not, there’ll be survivors. Some of their sons and daughters will be brought out. When they come out to you and their salvation is right in your face, you’ll see for yourself the life they’ve been saved from. You’ll know that this severe judgment I brought on Jerusalem was worth it, that it had to be. Yes, when you see in detail the kind of lives they’ve been living, you’ll feel much better. You’ll see the reason behind all that I’ve done in Jerusalem.” Decree of God, the Master.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 01, 2017
Read: Judges 6:11–16, 24
11-12 One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, O mighty warrior!”
13 Gideon replied, “With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, ‘Didn’t God deliver us from Egypt?’ The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian.”
14 But God faced him directly: “Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?”
15 Gideon said to him, “Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan’s the weakest in Manasseh and I’m the runt of the litter.”
16 God said to him, “I’ll be with you. Believe me, you’ll defeat Midian as one man.”
Judges 6:24The Message (MSG)
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to God and named it “God’s Peace.” It’s still called that at Ophrah of Abiezer.
INSIGHT:
Today’s text provides some insight into how we should view situations for which we feel inadequate. Gideon did not feel prepared to go into battle against the Midianites who were oppressing Israel. Responding to Gideon’s understandable concern, God sent the angel of the Lord to encourage him. He said that Gideon should “go in the strength” he had (Judg. 6:14), but he also said, “I will be with you” (v. 16). When God calls us to take on a difficult task, we can rely on His strength and power to help us accomplish it.
Are you facing a situation for which you feel inadequate? Ask God for His strength to help you.
Questions for God
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Go with the strength you have . . . . I will be with you. nlt Judges 6:14, 16
What would you do if the Lord showed up in the middle of your workday with a message? This happened to Gideon, one of the ancient Israelites. “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!’ ” Gideon could have responded with a wordless nod and gulp, but instead he said, “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” (Judg. 6:12–13 nlt). Gideon wanted to know why it seemed as if God had abandoned His people.
God didn’t answer that question. After Gideon had endured seven years of enemy attacks, starvation, and hiding in caves, God didn’t explain why He never intervened. God could have revealed Israel’s past sin as the reason, but instead He gave Gideon hope for the future. God said, “Go with the strength you have . . . . I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites” (vv.14, 16 nlt).
Lord, I am reaching out to You for the peace I need.
Do you ever wonder why God has allowed suffering in your life? Instead of answering that specific question, God may satisfy you with His nearness today and remind you that you can rely on His strength when you feel weak. When Gideon finally believed that God was with him and would help him, he built an altar and called it “The Lord Is Peace” (v. 24).
There is peace in knowing that whatever we do and wherever we go, we go with God who promised never to leave or forsake His followers.
For help, read Why? Seeing God in Our Pain at discoveryseries.org/cb151.
What could be better than getting answers to our why questions? Trusting a good and powerful God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 01, 2017
Faith— Not Emotion
We walk by faith, not by sight. —2 Corinthians 5:7
For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 01, 2017
The Eyes That Are Watching You - #7906
It's been a long time since I've had a pregnant woman in our family. But years ago, my wife, Karen, handled it beautifully. I offered to take some of that load, but apparently some things just can't be delegated. Now, the time came around for our daughter to have her first child some years ago. She lived close to us, so we got to walk down Pregnant Avenue with her. It was exciting! It was amazing how things our daughter might have normally done without even giving it a thought she wouldn't let herself do while she was pregnant. I think she was kind of watching what her Mom did. You know, she knew what her Mom had done. She refused to eat anything with certain artificial ingredients in it, things she loved. But she wouldn't touch them while pregnant. She had some headaches, but she would not put pain relievers into her body. No antihistamines, no matter how frustrating her cold symptoms got. She added a powerful new factor in deciding what she would and wouldn't do: the passenger she was carrying - the baby!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Eyes That Are Watching You."
Our pregnant daughter was asking a new question about what she did, "How could this harm someone else that I'm responsible for?" A pregnant woman isn't the only one who needs to be thinking about that kind of thing; about actions that might affect someone else.
Romans 14:13 is our word for today from the Word of God, "Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way." If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, you can't just base your actions on how they'll affect you. There are other lives watching yours that will be affected by your choices. We believers are responsible for each other whether we acknowledge that responsibility or not. And like our daughter, there may be things you could do that wouldn't hurt you, but might harm someone who's watching you.
Paul really took this responsibility very seriously. In his day, Christians disagreed over whether it was ok to eat meat that had been offered to an idol. And Paul said he felt he could do it without it hurting him. But listen to what he decided and how he decided it. "If what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall" (1 Corinthians 8:13). And he tells you and me to "be careful that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak" (1 Corinthians 8:9).
It's clear that our Lord expects us to calculate the effect of our actions on the people around us when we're deciding what we'll do and what we'll not do. Could it be that you're inadvertently leading a fellow believer into something that maybe you can handle but they can't? You might only do a little, but they'll see you doing it and figure it's ok. Except maybe they won't stop with a little. Something you validated could devastate someone else.
If you're a parent, your children are watching. And they'll replicate how you handle things, no matter how you tell them to act. Are you causing them to stumble? And remember there are unbelievers who know you're one of those Christian-types and they're watching you, they're listening to you. One friend told my wife and me, "I've sworn off church. I know a lot of those people and they're very different on Monday than they are in church on Sunday." She was having a hard time seeing Jesus because some inconsistent Christians were blocking the view. Could it be that some of your choices are confusing an unbeliever you know? That could harm them forever! No, it isn't enough to do something based solely on whether it will harm you. What you do, and who you are, is seeping into the systems of other people close to you.
I watched our daughter make some wonderfully unselfish choices, all because she knew how her choices could harm a life that was dependent on her choices. You've got someone in your life like that. Don't just think about what's good for you ... think about what's good for some of those vulnerable people whose lives are affected by the way you live yours.