Max Lucado Daily: A SMALL PRICE TO PAY
When you recognize God as Creator, you will admire Him. When you recognize His wisdom, you will learn from Him. When you discover His strength, you will rely on Him. But only when He saves you, will you worship Him.
Before your rescue, you could easily keep God at a distance. Comfortably dismissed and neatly shelved. Sure, He was important, but so was your career…your status. Then came the storm and the ripped moorings. Turn to your career for help? Only if you want to hide from the storm—not escape it. Lean on your status for strength? A storm isn’t impressed with your title.
And from that moment on, He is not just a deity to admire or a teacher to observe—He is the Savior. The Savior to be worshiped. A season of suffering is a small price to pay for a clear view of God!
Read more In the Eye of the Storm
Revelation 17
Great Babylon, Mother of Whores
1-2 One of the Seven Angels who carried the seven bowls came and invited me, “Come, I’ll show you the judgment of the great Whore who sits enthroned over many waters, the Whore with whom the kings of the earth have gone whoring, show you the judgment on earth dwellers drunk on her whorish lust.”
3-6 In the Spirit he carried me out in the desert. I saw a woman mounted on a Scarlet Beast. Stuffed with blasphemies, the Beast had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, festooned with gold and gems and pearls. She held a gold chalice in her hand, brimming with defiling obscenities, her foul fornications. A riddle-name was branded on her forehead: great babylon, mother of whores and abominations of the earth. I could see that the woman was drunk, drunk on the blood of God’s holy people, drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
6-8 Astonished, I rubbed my eyes. I shook my head in wonder. The Angel said, “Does this surprise you? Let me tell you the riddle of the woman and the Beast she rides, the Beast with seven heads and ten horns. The Beast you saw once was, is no longer, and is about to ascend from the Abyss and head straight for Hell. Earth dwellers whose names weren’t written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will be dazzled when they see the Beast that once was, is no longer, and is to come.
9-11 “But don’t drop your guard. Use your head. The seven heads are seven hills; they are where the woman sits. They are also seven kings: five dead, one living, the other not yet here—and when he does come his time will be brief. The Beast that once was and is no longer is both an eighth and one of the seven—and headed for Hell.
12-14 “The ten horns you saw are ten kings, but they’re not yet in power. They will come to power with the Scarlet Beast, but won’t last long—a very brief reign. These kings will agree to turn over their power and authority to the Beast. They will go to war against the Lamb but the Lamb will defeat them, proof that he is Lord over all lords, King over all kings, and those with him will be the called, chosen, and faithful.”
15-18 The Angel continued, “The waters you saw on which the Whore was enthroned are peoples and crowds, nations and languages. And the ten horns you saw, together with the Beast, will turn on the Whore—they’ll hate her, violate her, strip her naked, rip her apart with their teeth, then set fire to her. It was God who put the idea in their heads to turn over their rule to the Beast until the words of God are completed. The woman you saw is the great city, tyrannizing the kings of the earth.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Read: Romans 1:18–25
Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral
18-23 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
24-25 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!
INSIGHT:
Romans 1:20 declares that the intricacies of our universe point to a Designer and are proofs for the existence of God. Another Scripture that describes how creation points to God is Psalm 19. Captivated and awed by the immensity and beauty of the skies, David simply declares that God exists: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (v. 1). The majestic creation testifies to the presence and power of the even more majestic Creator God. David reflects on how God has revealed Himself to mankind so that we can know Him. God reveals Himself through His created works (vv. 1–6) and His spoken Word (vv. 7–11). In response, David prays for an obedient and faithful life (vv. 12–14).
How does the wonder of creation speak to you about God? Sim Kay Tee
God’s Radiant Beauty
By Sheridan Voysey
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made. Romans 1:20
Lord Howe Island is a small paradise of white sands and crystal waters off Australia’s east coast. When I visited some years ago, I was struck by its beauty. Here, one could swim with turtles and with fish like the shimmering trevally, while moon wrasses drifted nearby, flashing their neon colors like a billboard. In its lagoon I found coral reefs full of bright orange clownfish and yellow-striped butterfly fish that rushed to kiss my hand. Overwhelmed by such splendor, I couldn’t help but worship God.
The apostle Paul gives the reason for my response. Creation at its best reveals something of God’s nature (Rom. 1:20). The wonders of Lord Howe Island were giving me a glimpse of His own power and beauty.
Creation reflects God’s beauty the way a piece of art reflects its artist.
When the prophet Ezekiel encountered God, he was shown a radiant Being seated on a blue throne surrounded by glorious colors (Ezek. 1:25–28). The apostle John saw something similar: God sparkling like precious stones, encircled by an emerald rainbow (Rev. 4:2–3). When God reveals Himself, He is found to be not only good and powerful but beautiful too. Creation reflects this beauty the way a piece of art reflects its artist.
Nature often gets worshiped instead of God (Rom. 1:25). What a tragedy. Instead, may earth’s crystal waters and shimmering creatures point us to the One standing behind them who is more powerful and beautiful than anything in this world.
The beauty of creation reflects the beauty of our Creator.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, August 31, 2017
“My Joy…Your Joy”
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. —John 15:11
What was the joy that Jesus had? Joy should not be confused with happiness. In fact, it is an insult to Jesus Christ to use the word happiness in connection with Him. The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to His Father— the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do— “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” (Hebrews 12:2). “I delight to do Your will, O my God…” (Psalm 40:8). Jesus prayed that our joy might continue fulfilling itself until it becomes the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?
Living a full and overflowing life does not rest in bodily health, in circumstances, nor even in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the same fellowship and oneness with Him that Jesus Himself enjoyed. But the first thing that will hinder this joy is the subtle irritability caused by giving too much thought to our circumstances. Jesus said, “…the cares of this world,…choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). And before we even realize what has happened, we are caught up in our cares. All that God has done for us is merely the threshold— He wants us to come to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim who Jesus is.
Have the right relationship with God, finding your joy there, and out of you “will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). Be a fountain through which Jesus can pour His “living water.” Stop being hypocritical and proud, aware only of yourself, and live “your life…hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). A person who has the right relationship with God lives a life as natural as breathing wherever he goes. The lives that have been the greatest blessing to you are the lives of those people who themselves were unaware of having been a blessing.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Finding Your Way Home - #7994
Scotty was just four years old, and he was lost in Brooklyn. A police officer spotted this little guy standing on a busy street corner in this huge city, crying. Of course, he tried to help the boy by asking him his address, and Scotty didn't know. The officer asked him his phone number, and he answered through his tears, "I can't remember." The officer was running out of options. He was just about to take the little guy down to the station when he thought of one last question: "Little boy, is there anything near your house that I might recognize?" That was the moment that little guy discovered the one thing that really helped him finally get home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Finding Your Way Home."
There was one landmark that lost boy was able to identify for the policeman. He said, "Mister, next to my house there's this big church, and it's got a big cross on the top. And if you can get me to that cross, I can find my way home." So can you-home to the love that you've been looking for your whole life; home to the only relationship that will finally fill that hole in your heart. And, one day, home to the heaven we all want to go to but that none of us deserves. Finding your way home means first "getting to the cross."
Not long ago, a friend of mine met a thirty-something man on a plane who had left the church of his childhood years to embark on a search for spiritual reality. Along the way, there were a lot of religions, many spiritualties, but no satisfaction. Then, he said, "One day I stepped back into the church I'd grown up in. I was the only one there. Up in front, I saw the cross that I'd looked at so many times as a kid. But suddenly something hit me that I had missed all those years. I found myself saying, "For me. That cross was for me." And that's where his long search ended.
That's where the spiritual search of millions has ended. Looking at that cross, seeing what Jesus did there, and suddenly saying those two words that change everything, "for me." Our word for today from the Word of God, Galatians 2:20, puts it this way: "Christ loved me and gave Himself for me." For many people in recent times, Mel Gibson's portrayal of Jesus' death in his movie, "The Passion of the Christ," revealed the enormity of the suffering and the sacrifice that Jesus went through. And one can understandably ask, "What made such a bloody, horrific death necessary?" Answer, my sin-your sin.
Because sin isn't just breaking some religion's rule. It's declaring ourselves "God" of our own life; taking a life God made and doing with it what we want. That sin carries the death penalty of an unbearable hell-an eternal separation from God. And that's what Jesus was carrying for you in His body and His soul as He agonized on that cross. And three days later, He walked out of His grave under His own power.
Which means you can have, not a religion about Him, but a relationship with Him. If you will make personal what He did on that cross by telling Him, "Jesus, I believe that when You died, You were dying for me. I'm putting my total trust in you to be my personal rescuer from my personal sin. Beginning right here; beginning right now, I am Yours."
If you're ready to trade your sin for His forgiveness, if you're ready to trade your emptiness for His peace, and your hell for His heaven, make sure that this is the day you say "Jesus, I'm Yours," Don't put this off another day. No other day is guaranteed, but today. To support you in this I want to invite you to our website where many people have gone and confirmed their own relationship with Jesus Christ. It's ANewStory.com. Go there as soon as you can today, please.
The search of a lifetime ends at the foot of an old rugged cross. And if you can get to the cross, you can finally find your way home.