Max Lucado Daily: THE WHITE FLAG OF THE HEART
Maybe your past isn’t much to brag about. So do you rise above the past and make a difference? Or do you remain controlled by the past and make excuses? Many choose the latter. Lean closely and you will hear them say, If only… If only I’d been born somewhere else… If only I’d been treated fairly…”
If only… The white flag of the heart. Maybe you have every right to use those words. For you to find an ancestor worth imitating, you’d have to flip way back in your family album. If that’s the case, let me show you were to turn. Put down the scrapbook and pick up your Bible. Go to John’s gospel and read Jesus’ words: “Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit” (John 3:6). God is willing to give you what your family did not!
Read more When God Whispers Your Name
Revelation 14
A Perfect Offering
1-2 I saw—it took my breath away!—the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, 144,000 standing there with him, his Name and the Name of his Father inscribed on their foreheads. And I heard a voice out of Heaven, the sound like a cataract, like the crash of thunder.
2-5 And then I heard music, harp music and the harpists singing a new song before the Throne and the Four Animals and the Elders. Only the 144,000 could learn to sing the song. They were bought from earth, lived without compromise, virgin-fresh before God. Wherever the Lamb went, they followed. They were bought from humankind, firstfruits of the harvest for God and the Lamb. Not a false word in their mouths. A perfect offering.
Voices from Heaven
6-7 I saw another Angel soaring in Middle-Heaven. He had an Eternal Message to preach to all who were still on earth, every nation and tribe, every tongue and people. He preached in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory! His hour of judgment has come! Worship the Maker of Heaven and earth, salt sea and fresh water!”
8 A second Angel followed, calling out, “Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon ruined! She made all the nations drunk on the wine of her whoring!”
9-11 A third Angel followed, shouting, warning, “If anyone worships the Beast and its image and takes the mark on forehead or hand, that person will drink the wine of God’s wrath, prepared unmixed in his chalice of anger, and suffer torment from fire and brimstone in the presence of Holy Angels, in the presence of the Lamb. Smoke from their torment will rise age after age. No respite for those who worship the Beast and its image, who take the mark of its name.”
12 Meanwhile, the saints stand passionately patient, keeping God’s commands, staying faithful to Jesus.
13 I heard a voice out of Heaven, “Write this: Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “and blessed rest from their hard, hard work. None of what they’ve done is wasted; God blesses them for it all in the end.”
Harvest Time
14-16 I looked up, I caught my breath!—a white cloud and one like the Son of Man sitting on it. He wore a gold crown and held a sharp sickle. Another Angel came out of the Temple, shouting to the Cloud-Enthroned, “Swing your sickle and reap. It’s harvest time. Earth’s harvest is ripe for reaping.” The Cloud-Enthroned gave a mighty sweep of his sickle, began harvesting earth in a stroke.
17-18 Then another Angel came out of the Temple in Heaven. He also had a sharp sickle. Yet another Angel, the one in charge of tending the fire, came from the Altar. He thundered to the Angel who held the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle. Harvest earth’s vineyard. The grapes are bursting with ripeness.”
19-20 The Angel swung his sickle, harvested earth’s vintage, and heaved it into the winepress, the giant winepress of God’s wrath. The winepress was outside the City. As the vintage was trodden, blood poured from the winepress as high as a horse’s bridle, a river of blood for two hundred miles.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 18, 2017
Read: Psalm 100
A Thanksgiving Psalm
1-2 On your feet now—applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn’t make him.
We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.
4 Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
5 For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.
INSIGHT:
The book of Psalms is commonly known as the hymnbook of ancient Israel. But the opening line of Psalm 100 takes this beautiful hymn out of the sanctuary of Israel and places it in the mouths of everyone: “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.” Since this is written to “all the earth,” what follows applies to all of us.
Because God is the Creator of all, He is also the Father of all. We all belong to Him; we are the “sheep of his pasture” (v. 3). We are all called to give Him thanks and praise, even though believers may be the only ones who answer this call. We are commissioned to help those who do not recognize God and His faithfulness to “enter his gates” (v. 4).
Who can you invite into His “gates”? How can you show and tell them about God’s goodness and enduring love? How can you thank Him for His faithfulness to you?
For more on the book of Psalms read, Together With God at dhp.org/TogetherWithGod. J.R. Hudberg
You’re an Original
By David H. Roper
Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. Psalm 100:3
Each of us is an original from God’s hand. There are no self-made men or women. No one ever became talented, buffed, or bright all by himself or herself. God made each of us all by Himself. He thought of us and formed us out of His unspeakable love.
God made your body, mind, and soul. And He isn’t done with you; He is still making you. His single-minded purpose is our maturity: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). God is making you braver, stronger, purer, more peaceful, more loving, less selfish—the kind of person you’ve perhaps always wanted to be.
Spiritual growth occurs when faith is cultivated.
“[God’s] unfailing love continues forever and his faithfulness continues to each generation” (Ps. 100:5 nlt). God has always loved you (“forever” goes both ways), and He will be faithful to you to the end.
You’ve been given a love that lasts forever and a God who will never give up on you. That’s a good reason to have joy and to “come before him with joyful songs”! (v. 2).
If you can't carry a tune, just give Him a shout-out: “Shout for joy to the Lord” (v. 1).
I’m grateful, Father, that You are at work in me. I find it difficult to change and I wonder sometimes how or if I ever will. Yet I know that You are continuing Your work in me and as I look back I will see the growth You are producing. Thank You!
Spiritual growth occurs when faith is cultivated.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 18, 2017
Have You Ever Been Speechless with Sorrow?
When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. —Luke 18:23
The rich young ruler went away from Jesus speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus’ words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God’s Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain personal qualities, desires, and interests, or possibly relationships of your heart and mind. If so, then you have often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, and He will not plead with you. But every time He meets you at the place where He has pointed, He will simply repeat His words, saying, “If you really mean what you say, these are the conditions.”
“Sell all that you have…” (Luke 18:22). In other words, rid yourself before God of everything that might be considered a possession until you are a mere conscious human being standing before Him, and then give God that. That is where the battle is truly fought— in the realm of your will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Jesus Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His harsh and unyielding statements that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is difficult— it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His nature in them. Beware of allowing anything to soften the hard words of Jesus Christ.
I can be so rich in my own poverty, or in the awareness of the fact that I am nobody, that I will never be a disciple of Jesus. Or I can be so rich in the awareness that I am somebody that I will never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute and poor even in my sense of awareness of my destitution and poverty? If not, that is why I become discouraged. Discouragement is disillusioned self-love, and self-love may be love for my devotion to Jesus— not love for Jesus Himself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 18, 2017
The Princess in Your Mirror - #7985
When you see how cute our granddaughter is, it's hard to believe she's actually related to me. But she really is our little princess. I started calling my daughter "Princess" when she was just a baby, and I've never stopped. But I can't help calling our granddaughter that, as well, and when she was little she loved princesses. In fact, she had a princess skirt and top and tiara that she liked to wear around the house sometimes. She looked like Cinderella at the ball. When she'd answer the phone, I'd say, "Hi, Princess." And sometimes she'd say, "I'm not a princess!" Then, I have been told, she actually ran the phone like a scanner over the jeans and the shirt that she was wearing. When I asked her why she was not a princess, she let me know her clear-cut reason, "I'm not wearing my princess clothes."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Princess in Your Mirror."
I always tell my granddaughter, "Honey, I don't care what you're wearing. You're always my princess!" Believe it or not, that's how God feels about a woman who's listening right now. When your Heavenly Father sees you, He sees His princess.
And your reaction may be just like my granddaughter's, "I'm not a princess!" You don't think you look like a princess. Maybe you've been treated like anything but a princess. Or maybe what you do all day doesn't make you feel very special about yourself. You've been settling for so much less than you were created for because you don't realize how much you matter to God. But God is still saying, "However you look, however you've been treated, however insignificant you feel, you're always My princess!"
Hard to believe? Listen to our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 6, beginning with verse 16. The Bible says, "We are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be My people.' 'Therefore, come out from them and be separate,' says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'" So God is "the Lord Almighty," the king of all kings. That's what the Bible says. And God says that if you're a woman in His family, you're His daughter. And what do they call the daughter of a king? I seem to remember...it's called a princess!
You are God's handmade, masterpiece creation. In the Bible's words, "fearfully and wonderfully made," (Psalm 139:14). And you are His very expensive purchase. The Bible says that all of us-even though we were created by God and for God-have rebelled against God. We've hijacked our life from Him. We've broken His laws and done it "my way" instead of His way. And that leaves us cut off from the Father that we were made for. Since He gave you your worth in the first place, you'll never really feel how special you are until you get back to your Father. And that's where the very expensive purchase came in. God loved you so much that, in the words of the Bible, "He gave His one and only Son" (John 3:16). He came to die in your place; to pay for the very sin that has cut you off from Him.
When Jesus was dying on the cross, most of His disciples were nowhere to be found. But the women were there, whatever it might cost them. They had found in Jesus the Savior they could trust, the One who made them feel clean and valued and safe. He wants to do that for you, if you'll open your heart to Him and let Him into the life that He paid for with His life. No one has ever loved you like He does. No one ever can.
If you've been living without Christ in your heart and you want to belong to the One who loves you more than anyone...tell Him that right where you are. "Jesus, thank You for dying for the junk of my life. I realize I was made for You. You're the love I've been looking for my whole life and beginning right now, I'm Yours." He said that at your invitation, He will move into your life to make you His forever.
There's all the information you need to make that connection with Jesus once and for all on our website. We have nothing for you to join. Just the scriptures that will lead you right to the heart of Jesus and belonging to Him this very day. Let me invite you to go there – ANewStory.com.
The old fairy tales tell of a prince who comes to rescue the princess. What the Bible says is no fairy tale. The Prince of Heaven came to earth to die to rescue a woman destined to be a princess in God's family. That woman is you.