Max Lucado Daily: AN INTENTIONAL ACT
On my good days I begin my morning with a cup of coffee and a conversation with God. I look ahead into the day and make my requests. I am meeting with so-and-so at 10:00 AM. Would you give me wisdom? This afternoon I need to finish my sermon. Would you please go ahead of me? Then, if a sense of stress surfaces during the day, I remind myself: Oh, I gave this challenge to God earlier today. He has already taken responsibility for the situation. I can be grateful, not fretful.
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV). Casting is an intentional act to relocate an object. As you sense anxiety welling up inside you, cast it in the direction of Christ. He is moved by the sincere request. After all, is he not our Father?
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Matthew 5:27-48
Adultery and Divorce
27-28 “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.
29-30 “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.
31-32 “Remember the Scripture that says, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him do it legally, giving her divorce papers and her legal rights’? Too many of you are using that as a cover for selfishness and whim, pretending to be righteous just because you are ‘legal.’ Please, no more pretending. If you divorce your wife, you’re responsible for making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual promiscuity). And if you marry such a divorced adulteress, you’re automatically an adulterer yourself. You can’t use legal cover to mask a moral failure.
Empty Promises
33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.
Love Your Enemies
38-42 “Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Read: Revelation 3:1–6
To the Church in Sardis
“To the angel[a] of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Footnotes:
Revelation 3:1 Or messenger; also in verses 7 and 14
Revelation 3:1 That is, the sevenfold Spirit
INSIGHT
The call for the Christ-follower to be spiritually alert rings loud throughout the New Testament. To the sleepy disciples, Jesus bemoaned, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). Peter, writing from his own failure (see Luke 22:31–34), cautioned: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him” (1 Peter 5:8–9). We are reminded to “put on the full armor of God” (Eph. 6:11, 13) and to stand firm with the truth of the gospel (v. 14; see 2 Tim. 3:14–17) and with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). Those who have the law of God “in their hearts . . . do not slip” (Ps. 37:31). The spiritually alert “[delights] in the law of the Lord, and . . . meditates on his law day and night” (1:2).
How has “delighting” in God’s Word helped you remain spiritually alert? -Sim Kay Tee
Wake-Up Call!
By David C. McCasland
Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Revelation 3:2
During the years when I traveled frequently and stayed in a different city every night, I always scheduled a wake-up call when I checked into a hotel. Along with a personal alarm, I needed a jangling telephone to help get me out of bed and moving in the morning.
The book of Revelation contains a spiritual wake-up call in the apostle John’s letters to the seven churches in the province of Asia. To the church in Sardis he wrote this message from Jesus Himself: “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God” (Rev. 3:1–2).
Lord, enable us to hear and respond to Your call today.
In the midst of spiritual fatigue, we may fail to notice the lethargy that creeps into our relationship with God. But the Lord tells us to “remember . . . what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent” (v. 3).
Many people find that scheduling some extra time each morning to read the Bible and talk to the Lord in prayer helps them stay spiritually alert. It’s not a job but a joy to spend time with Jesus and know that He prepares us for whatever lies ahead that day.
Lord, enable us to hear and respond to Your wake-up call today.
Read In His Presence from Discovery Series.
Spending time with Jesus is a joy!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
How Will I Know?
Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father…that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes." —Matthew 11:25
We do not grow into a spiritual relationship step by step— we either have a relationship or we do not. God does not continue to cleanse us more and more from sin— “But if we walk in the light,” we are cleansed “from all sin” (1 John 1:7). It is a matter of obedience, and once we obey, the relationship is instantly perfected. But if we turn away from obedience for even one second, darkness and death are immediately at work again.
All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. Let God’s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know the truth of God is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don’t say, “I suppose I will understand these things someday!” You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the deepest truths of God immediately become yours. Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming one of the “wise and prudent.” “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know…” (John 7:17).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.” Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 10, 2017'
Simplifying Your Journey - #8022
During one summer with our "On Eagles' Wings" Native American outreach team, we had some 5,000 miles to cover in about five weeks. In order to make it to all the reservations to which we had accepted invitations, we needed a comfortable bus. And God wonderfully provided that through some brothers in Christ. Now our bus driver, Josh, really knew his way across the West, and my wife Karen really didn't. It was often her job to drive another vehicle that we needed. That meant traveling many unfamiliar miles, but she found a way to simplify the process. She just kept her eyes on that bus. If Josh turned, she turned. If Josh stopped, she stopped. She made sure she could even recognize the lights of his bus in case they got separated. Karen said this trip that could have been so difficult and confusing turned out to be pretty relaxed and simple. She didn't try to figure out the route for herself. She had a great trip because one thing governed all her choices-following the man who knew the way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Simplifying Your Journey."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 10:3-4. "The sheep listen to (the shepherd's) voice. He calls His own sheep by name and He leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes ahead of them". That one verse, "He puts His sheep out, He goes ahead of them" has been an anchor for Karen and me over and over as we have moved into unfamiliar or difficult territory in our life. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is leading us this direction; He's traveling this road ahead of us, and He knows where He's going.
And what do smart sheep do? They try to figure out where they're going to find some good pasture, or they try to figure out which road is safe and which one is dangerous, or move in the direction that looks best to them? No, smart sheep don't do that. No, they do what my wife did traveling in that unfamiliar territory out West. They quit trying to figure it out for themselves and they follow the One who knows every mile in the road! John 10:27, "My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me."
Maybe you've been trying to fix things yourself, control things, manipulate things. What a great way to get lost and confused-and to miss your destination. Jesus' most fundamental command is simply, "Follow Me." Are you? That's more than going to His meetings or believing His beliefs, or doing His work, or keeping His rules. We're talking about how you determine which way you're going to go in the decisions that really matter in your life.
You might say, "Well, following a bus is one thing, but how do I follow Jesus? How do I know which way He's going?" Good question. Good answer in Psalm 119:105. "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." He shows you what step to take next as you begin each day with His Book, the Bible, asking, "Lord, what's Your word for me today?"
His answer might be to show you verses that focus on one specific part of you and your life. Whatever that verse lights up, you make that your conscious assignment for that day to do that part of you Jesus' way. You apply that verse to something you will face today. "Lord, what can I apply this to? What am I doing to do differently today because of what you've said?" Through the accumulation of those daily obediences, God will lead you on the path to His larger will. Because His macro will is the sum of a lot of micro wills that you do each day. The right you will make the right choices.
The Spirit of God uses the applied Word of God to lead the child of God to the will of God. So your job is much the same as my wife's was on her journey into new territory-find out where your Leader is going and just get behind Him and go there. Speed up when He speeds up. Stop when He stops. Turn when He turns.
You wouldn't believe the freedom and relief it is to realize you don't have to figure this all out any more. Following Jesus sure simplifies your journey. Oh, and by the way, guarantees you'll reach your destination.