Max Lucado Daily: BE A GRACE GIVER
Forgiveness is not foolishness. Forgiveness, at its core, is choosing to see your offender with different eyes. By the way, how can we grace-recipients do anything less? Dare we ask God for grace when we refuse to give it? This is a huge issue in Scripture! Jesus was tough on sinners who refused to forgive other sinners.
Remember his story in Matthew 18, about the servant freshly forgiven a debt of millions who refused to forgive a debt equal to a few dollars? He stirred the wrath of God. “You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt. Shouldn’t you have mercy just as I had mercy on you?” (Matthew 18:32). In the final sum, we give grace because we’ve been given grace. And we’ve been given grace so we can freely give it. See your enemies as God’s child and revenge as God’s job.
From Facing Your Giants
Psalm 82
An Asaph Psalm
God calls the judges into his courtroom,
he puts all the judges in the dock.
2-4 “Enough! You’ve corrupted justice long enough,
you’ve let the wicked get away with murder.
You’re here to defend the defenseless,
to make sure that underdogs get a fair break;
Your job is to stand up for the powerless,
and prosecute all those who exploit them.”
5 Ignorant judges! Head-in-the-sand judges!
They haven’t a clue to what’s going on.
And now everything’s falling apart,
the world’s coming unglued.
6-7 “I commissioned you judges, each one of you,
deputies of the High God,
But you’ve betrayed your commission
and now you’re stripped of your rank, busted.”
8 O God, give them their just deserts!
You’ve got the whole world in your hands!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Read: John 14:15–26
The Spirit of Truth
“If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.
21 “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”
23-24 “Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.
25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
INSIGHT:
When Jesus talks about the coming of the Holy Spirit, He says the Spirit will live with us and be in us (John 14:17). However, it is the effect of the Spirit being in us that is truly surprising. Instead of saying the Spirit will know us, Jesus says we will know Him! What a thought—we can know the God who knows us and makes His home in us. J.R. Hudberg
Sweet Company
By Anne Cetas
The Spirit of truth . . . lives with you and will be in you. John 14:17
The elderly woman in the nursing home didn’t speak to anyone or request anything. It seemed she merely existed, rocking in her creaky old chair. She didn’t have many visitors, so one young nurse would often go into her room on her breaks. Without asking the woman questions to try to get her to talk, she simply pulled up another chair and rocked with her. After several months, the elderly woman said to her, “Thank you for rocking with me.” She was grateful for the companionship.
Before He went back to heaven, Jesus promised to send a constant companion to His disciples. He told them He would not leave them alone but would send the Holy Spirit to be in them (John 14:17). That promise is still true for believers in Jesus today. Jesus said that the triune God makes His “home” in us (v. 23).
Dear Lord, thank You for giving us Your Spirit as our constant companion.
The Lord is our close and faithful companion throughout our entire life. He will guide us in our deepest struggles, forgive our sin, hear each silent prayer, and shoulder the burdens we cannot bear.
We can enjoy His sweet company today.
Dear Lord, thank You for giving us Your Spirit as our constant companion.
The Christian’s heart is the Holy Spirit’s home.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, July 27, 2017
The Way to Knowledge
If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine… —John 7:17
The golden rule to follow to obtain spiritual understanding is not one of intellectual pursuit, but one of obedience. If a person wants scientific knowledge, then intellectual curiosity must be his guide. But if he desires knowledge and insight into the teachings of Jesus Christ, he can only obtain it through obedience. If spiritual things seem dark and hidden to me, then I can be sure that there is a point of disobedience somewhere in my life. Intellectual darkness is the result of ignorance, but spiritual darkness is the result of something that I do not intend to obey.
No one ever receives a word from God without instantly being put to the test regarding it. We disobey and then wonder why we are not growing spiritually. Jesus said, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). He is saying, in essence, “Don’t say another word to me; first be obedient by making things right.” The teachings of Jesus hit us where we live. We cannot stand as impostors before Him for even one second. He instructs us down to the very last detail. The Spirit of God uncovers our spirit of self-vindication and makes us sensitive to things that we have never even thought of before.
When Jesus drives something home to you through His Word, don’t try to evade it. If you do, you will become a religious impostor. Examine the things you tend simply to shrug your shoulders about, and where you have refused to be obedient, and you will know why you are not growing spiritually. As Jesus said, “First…go….” Even at the risk of being thought of as fanatical, you must obey what God tells you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 27, 2017
No Dirt Allowed - #7969
When our oldest child was born, they didn't even let fathers go into the labor room. That was nice. Then when our second one was born, fathers must have gotten a little smarter. They let us go into the labor room, but not the delivery room. And by the time our third one was born, hey, fathers had really gotten smart! I was actively involved with the doctor in the delivery. But, of course, I couldn't just walk right into the delivery room. No! First, I had to do what the doctor and nurse had to do – scrub up! Oh yeah, they made sure I washed thoroughly with disinfectant. Then they covered every part of me but my hands and my eyes and my nose – and they put a mask over my mouth, a thoroughly ugly cap on my head and this goofy smock over my clothes. My only consolation was the doctor looked as geeky as I did. They gave me paper booties (That was cool! I still wear those.) to wear over my shoes, but I understood. They can't allow any dirt to infect that environment. You've to be clean to get in.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Dirt Allowed."
It seems like more people are thinking more these days about spiritual issues. That's a good thing, including about what happens after we take our last breath. One area of curiosity is heaven – which we can guess about if we want, or we can get our information from the One who made heaven, who lives there, who sets the standards for going there. Of course, that would be God. Who, in the Bible, describes heaven, not as a state of mind, but as a very real, very mind-blowing place.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Revelation 21:4. It is a partial description of heaven. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain." Later it says, "The great street of the city was of pure gold." Imagine! This is what we consider the most precious substance on earth. We'll be walking on it heaven! It's pavement. We can't begin to imagine the glory of this eternal destination.
Then in that same passage, here's something very disturbing, "Nothing impure will ever enter it," He says, "nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." (Revelation 21:27) God says heaven is a lot like that delivery room; no one is allowed in there who isn't clean. They would infect an environment that has to be pure. God's saying here that He can't allow anyone with sin into heaven or it won't be heaven any more.
But here's why that's so disturbing. Romans 3:10 in the Bible says, "There is no one righteous, not even one." Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Well, if sinners can't get into heaven, then you and I have no chance no matter how religious we are. No matter how much good we do, it doesn't remove any of the dirt of a lifetime of choices that were "my way" instead of God's way, that defied what God wanted. The scriptures show us that there will be a lot of surprised people in hell; people who thought they could get to heaven by being good enough. But their good didn't remove the sin that keeps people out of heaven.
But this verse mentions those who will enter heaven; those in the Lamb's Book of Life. Your name goes there when you get every sin of your life erased from God's book. Here's the only disinfectant that can do that. 1 John 1:7 says, "The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." Our only hope of being clean enough to enter heaven is what Jesus did when He died on the cross to take the death penalty that we deserved to pay for our sin. The question is, has there ever been a time when, in your heart, you've stood at Jesus' cross and basically said, "Lord, I'm putting my total trust in you to forgive me, to erase my sins from your book? You're my only hope."
If you've never done that, if you're not sure you've done that, why don't you today make sure. Jesus has become your personal Rescuer from your personal sin. Go to our website. I've put there the information that will help you nail down and make sure this is the day that Jesus becomes your Savior from your sin. That's ANewStory.com.
We're all too dirty to enter that sin-free environment of heaven. You can get clean! You can get clean this very day, but only Jesus can do it. If you want to go in to Jesus' heaven, you've got to get clean. This could be that day.
