Max Lucado Daily: THE CURE FOR JEALOUSY
What’s the cure for jealousy? Trust. The cause of jealousy? Distrust!
In a cemetery in England stands a grave marker with the inscription: She died for want of things. Alongside that marker is another: He died trying to give them to her. Let me ask you, have you seen such envy? Have you seen red-faced jealousy? Are you acquainted with the crimson forehead and the bulging veins of jealousy? Solomon says, “Anger is cruel and destroys like a flood, but no one can put up with jealousy!” (Proverbs 27:4).
The sons of Jacob didn’t trust God to meet their needs. The Pharisees didn’t trust God to solve their problems. What were the consequences of their envy? Loneliness! Who wants to hang out with a jealous fool? Stop focusing on what you want, and start trusting God to provide what you need. Replace your jealousy with gratitude.
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 21
A Sword! A Sword!
1-5 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, now face Jerusalem and let the Message roll out against the Sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of Israel. Say, ‘God’s Message: I’m against you. I’m pulling my sword from its sheath and killing both the wicked and the righteous. Because I’m treating everyone the same, good and bad, everyone from south to north is going to feel my sword! Everyone will know that I mean business.’
6 “So, son of man, groan! Double up in pain. Make a scene!
7 “When they ask you, ‘Why all this groaning, this carrying on?’ say, ‘Because of the news that’s coming. It’ll knock the breath out of everyone. Hearts will stop cold, knees turn to rubber. Yes, it’s coming. No stopping it. Decree of God, the Master.’”
8-10 God’s Message to me: “Son of man, prophesy. Tell them, ‘The Master says:
“‘A sword! A sword!
razor-sharp and polished,
Sharpened to kill,
polished to flash like lightning!
“‘My child, you’ve despised the scepter of Judah
by worshiping every tree-idol.
11 “‘The sword is made to glisten,
to be held and brandished.
It’s sharpened and polished,
ready to be brandished by the killer.’
12 “Yell out and wail, son of man.
The sword is against my people!
The princes of Israel
and my people—abandoned to the sword!
Wring your hands!
Tear out your hair!
13 “‘Testing comes.
Why have you despised discipline?
You can’t get around it.
Decree of God, the Master.’
14-17 “So, prophesy, son of man!
Clap your hands. Get their attention.
Tell them that the sword’s coming down
once, twice, three times.
It’s a sword to kill,
a sword for a massacre,
A sword relentless,
a sword inescapable—
People collapsing right and left,
going down like dominoes.
I’ve stationed a murderous sword
at every gate in the city,
Flashing like lightning,
brandished murderously.
Cut to the right, thrust to the left,
murderous, sharp-edged sword!
Then I’ll clap my hands,
a signal that my anger is spent.
I, God, have spoken.”
18-22 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, lay out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take. Start them from the same place. Place a signpost at the beginning of each road. Post one sign to mark the road of the sword to Rabbah of the Ammonites. Post the other to mark the road to Judah and Fort Jerusalem. The king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road and he decides by divination which of the two roads to take. He draws straws, he throws god-dice, he examines a goat liver. He opens his right hand: The omen says, ‘Head for Jerusalem!’ So he’s on his way with battering rams, roused to kill, sounding the battle cry, pounding down city gates, building siege works.
23 “To the Judah leaders, who themselves have sworn oaths, it will seem like a false divination, but he will remind them of their guilt, and so they’ll be captured.
24 “So this is what God, the Master, says: ‘Because your sin is now out in the open so everyone can see what you’ve been doing, you’ll be taken captive.
25-27 “‘O Zedekiah, blasphemous and evil prince of Israel: Time’s up. It’s “punishment payday.” God says, Take your royal crown off your head. No more “business as usual.” The underdog will be promoted and the top dog will be demoted. Ruins, ruins, ruins! I’ll turn the whole place into ruins. And ruins it will remain until the one comes who has a right to it. Then I’ll give it to him.’
28-32 “But, son of man, your job is to prophesy. Tell them, ‘This is the Message from God, the Master, against the Ammonites and against their cruel taunts:
“‘A sword! A sword!
Bared to kill,
Sharp as a razor,
flashing like lightning.
Despite false sword propaganda
circulated in Ammon,
The sword will sever Ammonite necks,
for whom it’s punishment payday.
Return the sword to the sheath! I’ll judge you in your home country,
in the land where you grew up.
I’ll empty out my wrath on you,
breathe hot anger down your neck.
I’ll give you to vicious men
skilled in torture.
You’ll end up as stove-wood.
Corpses will litter your land.
Not so much as a memory will be left of you.
I, God, have said so.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Read: Philippians 1:21–26
So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!
And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.
22-26 As long as I’m alive in this body, there is good work for me to do. If I had to choose right now, I hardly know which I’d choose. Hard choice! The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Some days I can think of nothing better. But most days, because of what you are going through, I am sure that it’s better for me to stick it out here. So I plan to be around awhile, companion to you as your growth and joy in this life of trusting God continues. You can start looking forward to a great reunion when I come visit you again. We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other.
INSIGHT:
Paul’s mixed feelings about life didn’t seem to be rooted in a moment of crisis or despair. Ever since his encounter with the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus he’d found a different understanding of what it means to live with purpose and to die with gain. Before he met Christ, his goal had been to inflict pain and suffering on followers of Jesus. But then he learned what it meant to consider it an honor to accept whatever it took to help others discover the mercy and kindness he’d found in Jesus.
Describing the love that he now wanted others to know for themselves, Paul wrote, “I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more” (Phil. 1:8–9). Now—whether in life or death—Paul believed he couldn’t lose.
Singing with Violet
By Dave Branon
I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Philippians 1:23–24
An elderly woman named Violet sat on her bed in a Jamaican infirmary and smiled as some teenagers stopped to visit with her. The hot, sticky, midday air came into her little group home unabated, but she didn’t complain. Instead, she began wracking her mind for a song to sing. Then a huge smile appeared and she sang, “I am running, skipping, jumping, praising the Lord!” As she sang, she swung her arms back and forth as if she were running. Tears came to those around her, for Violet had no legs. She was singing because, she said, “Jesus loves me—and in heaven I will have legs to run with.”
Violet’s joy and hopeful anticipation of heaven give new vibrancy to Paul’s words in Philippians 1 when he referred to life-and-death issues. “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me,” he said. “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (vv. 22–23).
When God gives us a new beginning, we find a joy that’s never ending.
Each of us faces tough times that may cause us to long for the promise of heavenly relief. But as Violet showed us joy despite her current circumstances, we too can keep “running, skipping, praising the Lord”—both for the abundant life He gives us here and for the ultimate joy that awaits us.
Lord, when times are tough, help me to find joy. Help us to live in the tough times of this world with happiness while looking ahead to something “better by far.”
When God gives us a new beginning, we find a joy that’s never ending.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 11, 2017
“Love One Another”
…add to your…brotherly kindness love. —2 Peter 1:5, 7
Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don’t know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself (see Luke 14:26). Initially, when “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5), it is easy to put Jesus first. But then we must practice the things mentioned in 2 Peter 1 to see them worked out in our lives.
The first thing God does is forcibly remove any insincerity, pride, and vanity from my life. And the Holy Spirit reveals to me that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. Now He commands me to show the same love to others by saying, “…love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He is saying, “I will bring a number of people around you whom you cannot respect, but you must exhibit My love to them, just as I have exhibited it to you.” This kind of love is not a patronizing love for the unlovable— it is His love, and it will not be evidenced in us overnight. Some of us may have tried to force it, but we were soon tired and frustrated.
“The Lord…is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish…” (2 Peter 3:9). I should look within and remember how wonderfully He has dealt with me. The knowledge that God has loved me beyond all limits will compel me to go into the world to love others in the same way. I may get irritated because I have to live with an unusually difficult person. But just think how disagreeable I have been with God! Am I prepared to be identified so closely with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness will be continually poured out through Me? Neither natural love nor God’s divine love will remain and grow in me unless it is nurtured. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained through discipline.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Stealth Bombers In Your Air Space - #7914
The first time I heard someone talking about an invisible airplane, my reaction was, "I don't think so." But, in a sense, there is such a thing. Not exactly an airplane that people can't see-but it's an airplane radar can't see. It's called the "Stealth" bomber. Of course, if a bomber is headed for you, you want to know it. And radar has always been what alerted defenders to that bomber. But the "Stealth" is able to come in under the range of radar-and invade air space undetected-and do damage it might never have been able to do if it had been detected. Nobody realizes they're in danger until it's too late.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stealth Bombers In Your Air Space."
There's a reason the Bible talks about not being unaware of Satan's schemes. It's important to be aware of how he attacks, in Paul's words, "in order that Satan might not outwit us" (2 Corinthians 2:11). Too many people, just like you and me, have ended up standing in the bombed out wreckage of what used to be and wondering how did I ever get this far? How did Satan ever get this far?
Your enemy wants to get sinful feelings and values embedded in your heart-and then, when he's got you softened up and your guard's down, he'll bring in the temptation bomb to sink you. Now, if you can see him coming, you're not going to let him in…thus, the stealth bombers of sin.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 1:14 and verses that follow. "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do." God says He bought you out of sin, so He's expecting you to be uncompromising in your personal holiness; not to have any "roped off" areas of your life where you lower your guard and let something less than holy things in. But the front line of the battle isn't over doing sinful things, it's over desires-thinking about or developing a tolerance for sin, even the desire for sinful things.
That's why 1 Peter 2:11 commands us to "abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul." Wow! What is Satan's best way to get wrong thoughts and tolerances into your life? By coming in under the radar in a way that you'll never notice, right?
Here are some of his stealth bombers. Sin in a way that gets you laughing. Some of the most popular, clever humor on TV carries with it ideas and lifestyles that are totally against what God wants. Another stealth bomber-sin promoted by cool celebrities and beautiful people. Again, this person is a significant person in our culture, right? And we let their ungodly ideas come sneaking into our heart. Satan has sin's stealth bombers throughout the media. If something happens in a popular TV show or a movie or a song, we let it fly right into our heart without a thought.
The enemy of your soul knows better than to attack frontally-he starts by just imperceptibly softening you up on things like divorce, sexual sin, lust, living together, drinking, and the dark side of the supernatural. If the package sin comes in is funny or popular or catchy, we tend to let something into our life we would never otherwise allow if it were presented blatantly. It's corrosive sin in a seemingly harmless disguise.
So it's easy to see why Peter ends his letter by telling us to keep our radar on-and to not let anything sneak in under it. He says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Or like a stealth bomber-coming in beneath your defenses-to deliver a bomb that can damage so many things you care about.