Max Lucado Daily: GIVE GOD YOUR WHOLE HEART
God
gives us more by going deeper than we ask. He not only wants your whole
heart—He wants your heart whole. Why? Hurt people hurt people. Think
about it. Why do you fly off the handle? Why do you avoid conflict? Why
do you seek to please everyone? Might your tendencies have something to
do with an unhealed hurt in your heart? God wants to help you for your
sake.
Your family history has some sad chapters. But
your history doesn’t have to be your future. The generational garbage
can stop here and now. You don’t have to give your kids what your
ancestors gave you. Talk to God about the scandals and scoundrels.
Invite Him to relive the betrayal with you. The process may take a long
time. It may take a lifetime. It may be difficult, for certain. But let
God do His work!
From You’ll Get Through This
Zechariah 8
Rebuilding the Temple
1-2 And then these Messages from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“I am zealous for Zion—I care!
I’m angry about Zion—I’m involved!”
God’s Message:
3 “I’ve come back to Zion,
I’ve moved back to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem’s new names will be Truth City,
and Mountain of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
and Mount Holiness.”
4-5 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“Old
men and old women will come back to Jerusalem, sit on benches on the
streets and spin tales, move around safely with their canes—a good city
to grow old in. And boys and girls will fill the public parks, laughing
and playing—a good city to grow up in.”
6 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“Do
the problems of returning and rebuilding by just a few survivors seem
too much? But is anything too much for me? Not if I have my say.”
7-8 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“I’ll
collect my people from countries to the east and countries to the west.
I’ll bring them back and move them into Jerusalem. They’ll be my people
and I’ll be their God. I’ll stick with them and do right by them.”
9-10 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“Get
a grip on things. Hold tight, you who are listening to what I say
through the preaching of the prophets. The Temple of
God-of-the-Angel-Armies has been reestablished. The Temple is being
rebuilt. We’ve come through a hard time: You worked for a pittance and
were lucky to get that; the streets were dangerous; you could never let
down your guard; I had turned the world into an armed camp.
11-12 “But things have changed. I’m taking the side of my core of surviving people:
Sowing and harvesting will resume,
Vines will grow grapes,
Gardens will flourish,
Dew and rain will make everything green.
12-13
“My core survivors will get everything they need—and more. You’ve
gotten a reputation as a bad-news people, you people of Judah and
Israel, but I’m coming to save you. From now on, you’re the good-news
people. Don’t be afraid. Keep a firm grip on what I’m doing.”
Keep Your Lives Simple and Honest
14-17 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“In
the same way that I decided to punish you when your ancestors made me
angry, and didn’t pull my punches, at this time I’ve decided to bless
Jerusalem and the country of Judah. Don’t be afraid. And now here’s what
I want you to do: Tell the truth, the whole truth, when you speak. Do
the right thing by one another, both personally and in your courts.
Don’t cook up plans to take unfair advantage of others. Don’t do or say
what isn’t so. I hate all that stuff. Keep your lives simple and
honest.” Decree of God.
18-19 Again I received a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“The
days of mourning set for the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months
will be turned into days of feasting for Judah—celebration and holiday.
Embrace truth! Love peace!”
20-21 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“People
and their leaders will come from all over to see what’s going on. The
leaders will confer with one another: ‘Shouldn’t we try to get in on
this? Get in on God’s blessings? Pray to God-of-the-Angel-Armies? What’s
keeping us? Let’s go!’
22 “Lots of people, powerful
nations—they’ll come to Jerusalem looking for what they can get from
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, looking to get a blessing from God.”
23 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“At
that time, ten men speaking a variety of languages will grab the sleeve
of one Jew, hold tight, and say, ‘Let us go with you. We’ve heard that
God is with you.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, July 04, 2017
Read: Romans 6:15–23
What Is True Freedom?
15-18
So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can
live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we
do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your
own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that
destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your
last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom
never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But
thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands
set you free to live openly in his freedom!
19 I’m
using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can
readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what
you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the
worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much
different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and
expansive in holiness?
20-21 As long as you did what
you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right
thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you
call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud
of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.
22-23 But now
that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do,
and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a
surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and
more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your
pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered
by Jesus, our Master.
INSIGHT:
Some of the
spiritual giants of the church were profoundly changed by Paul’s
Spirit-inspired words in Romans. One of those was Martin Luther
(1483–1546), a German theologian, writer, and reformer of the church. As
a monk, Luther struggled with the impossible task of trying to be
righteous on his own merits or works. The words of Romans 1:17, “The
righteous will live by faith,” led Luther to realize that justification
(being made holy) is through faith by God’s grace alone. God through His
Word lifts the burden of sin and sets us free.
Who can you share the freeing words of Romans with today? Alyson Kieda
Celebrate Freedom
By Julie Ackerman Link
The law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2
After
being kidnapped, held hostage for thirteen days, and released, New
Zealand news cameraman Olaf Wiig, with a broad smile on his face,
announced, “I feel more alive now than I have in my entire life.”
For reasons difficult to understand, being freed is more exhilarating than being free.
The law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2
For
those who enjoy freedom every day, Olaf’s joy was a good reminder of
how easily we forget how blessed we are. This is also true spiritually.
Those of us who have been Christians for a long time often forget what
it’s like to be held hostage by sin. We can become complacent and even
ungrateful. But then God sends a reminder in the form of a new believer
who gives an exuberant testimony of what God has done in his or her
life, and once again we see the joy that is ours when we are “free from
the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).
If freedom has
become boring to you, or if you tend to focus on what you can’t do,
consider this: Not only are you no longer a slave to sin, but you are
freed to be holy and to enjoy eternal life with Christ Jesus! (6:22).
Celebrate your freedom in Christ by taking the time to thank God for the things you are able and free to do as His servant.
What are you thankful for? Share on our Facebook page:
Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
Living for Christ brings true freedom.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, July 04, 2017
One of God’s Great “Don’ts”
Do not fret— it only causes harm. —Psalm 37:8
Fretting
means getting ourselves “out of joint” mentally or spiritually. It is
one thing to say, “Do not fret,” but something very different to have
such a nature that you find yourself unable to fret. It’s easy to say,
“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:7) until our
own little world is turned upside down and we are forced to live in
confusion and agony like so many other people. Is it possible to “rest
in the Lord” then? If this “Do not” doesn’t work there, then it will not
work anywhere. This “Do not” must work during our days of difficulty
and uncertainty, as well as our peaceful days, or it will never work.
And if it will not work in your particular case, it will not work for
anyone else. Resting in the Lord is not dependent on your external
circumstances at all, but on your relationship with God Himself.
Worrying
always results in sin. We tend to think that a little anxiety and worry
are simply an indication of how wise we really are, yet it is actually a
much better indication of just how wicked we are. Fretting rises from
our determination to have our own way. Our Lord never worried and was
never anxious, because His purpose was never to accomplish His own plans
but to fulfill God’s plans. Fretting is wickedness for a child of God.
Have
you been propping up that foolish soul of yours with the idea that your
circumstances are too much for God to handle? Set all your opinions and
speculations aside and “abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm
91:1). Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about whatever
concerns you. All our fretting and worrying is caused by planning
without God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We
must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and
never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the
word of God skilfully amongst them. Workmen of God, 1341 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, July 04, 2017
The Most Dangerous Place In the World - #7952
Years
ago I heard a friend tell about a scene from his childhood that he
never forgot. My friend was around on that black day in 1929 that marked
the beginning of the Great Depression. One of the great traumas of
America's financial collapse, of course, was that many banks just went
under almost overnight. Well, my friend literally remembered seeing a
neighbor at the locked gates of his bank, and he was literally pounding
his fists bloody on those gates, screaming at the top of his lungs,
"Give me my money! Give me my money!" There was no money to give.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Dangerous Place in The World".
That
desperate man, and millions like him, placed their security in an
institution. An institution that sure seemed safe but that ultimately
and suddenly failed them. A lot of church folks are making that mistake
today. Did you know that? Placing their eternal security in their
church; in believing its beliefs, attending its meetings, even taking
church leadership. Sadly, none of that's enough to get your sins
forgiven or to get you into God's heaven.
Sometimes
religious folks argue over which church is the right church. Well, in
Jeremiah's time there was no argument. God's people were the Jews and
their temple was God's self-declared house on earth. But even that
wasn't enough.
In our word for today from the Word of
God, in Jeremiah 7, beginning with verse 10, God says, "You come and
stand before Me in this house, which bears my Name, and you say 'We are
safe'...'But I have been watching,' declares the Lord." God goes on to
point out the sin in their lives – sin that no amount of 'church' can
make right. He goes on to describe His pending destruction of what God
calls (Listen to these words.) "the temple you trust in."
Boy,
that's the danger of being religious. You tend to trust in your
religiousness instead of in Christ. Christianity will never get anyone
to heaven. Only Christ can get you there. Only Christ died to pay for
the sin that disqualifies every one of us from going to heaven. Jesus
established the Church to represent Him on earth, to do His work on
earth. But church can be the most dangerous place in the world if that's
where your trust is.
Christianity is all about Jesus,
but it can actually cause you to miss Jesus. It's called false security;
feeling like you're okay with God because you speak the language, you
agree with the teachings, and you've been around it all these years.
Why, no one would even question that you have a relationship with Jesus –
except Jesus. And He's the only One who matters.
Could
it be that somehow in the midst of a religion all about Jesus you've
missed a personal relationship with Jesus even while you've been a good
church person for a long time? Jesus described some active church folks
to whom He will say on Judgment Day, "I never knew you" (Matthew
7:21-23).
Somehow, they have never actually given
themselves in total faith to the One who died to pay for their sins.
There has to be that time when you say, "Jesus, some of those sins You
died for were mine, and I have no hope of heaven except You and what You
did on the cross for me. So beginning right now, Jesus, I'm yours."
Have
you taken that step? I would say that if you don't know, you probably
haven't. If you've missed it, don't go another day without moving Christ
from your head to your heart...from being a belief to being your own
personal Savior. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours."
Look,
let me invite you to go to our website at your first opportunity today.
Because I've laid out there a way you can be sure that you belong to
Jesus Christ now and forever. And I know that's what you want. It's
ANewStory.com.
The church you've trusted in, the
religion you've trusted in, the goodness you've trusted in are
inadequate substitutes for the real thing – putting your total trust in
Jesus. Because it's all about Jesus!