Max Lucado Daily: SEARCH THE NIGHT FOR A LIGHT
On the night when Jesus was born, I wonder if Joseph prayed, Father, this all seems so. . .bizarre. The angel you sent? Any chance you could send another?
You’ve stood where Joseph stood. Each of us knows what it’s like to search the night for a light. Not outside a stable, but perhaps outside an emergency room or on the manicured grass of a cemetery. We’ve asked our questions. We’ve wondered why God does what he does.
If you’re asking what Joseph asked, let me urge you to do what Joseph did. Obey. He didn’t let his confusion disrupt his obedience. What about you? You have a choice: to obey or disobey. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world. Can He do the same with you? Will you be that kind of person? Will you serve…even when you don’t understand?
Read more In the Manger
Job 39
1-4 “Do you know the month when mountain goats give birth?
Have you ever watched a doe bear her fawn?
Do you know how many months she is pregnant?
Do you know the season of her delivery,
when she crouches down and drops her offspring?
Her young ones flourish and are soon on their own;
they leave and don’t come back.
5-8 “Who do you think set the wild donkey free,
opened the corral gates and let him go?
I gave him the whole wilderness to roam in,
the rolling plains and wide-open places.
He laughs at his city cousins, who are harnessed and harried.
He’s oblivious to the cries of teamsters.
He grazes freely through the hills,
nibbling anything that’s green.
9-12 “Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you,
volunteer to spend the night in your barn?
Can you imagine hitching your plow to a buffalo
and getting him to till your fields?
He’s hugely strong, yes, but could you trust him,
would you dare turn the job over to him?
You wouldn’t for a minute depend on him, would you,
to do what you said when you said it?
13-18 “The ostrich flaps her wings futilely—
all those beautiful feathers, but useless!
She lays her eggs on the hard ground,
leaves them there in the dirt, exposed to the weather,
Not caring that they might get stepped on and cracked
or trampled by some wild animal.
She’s negligent with her young, as if they weren’t even hers.
She cares nothing about anything.
She wasn’t created very smart, that’s for sure,
wasn’t given her share of good sense.
But when she runs, oh, how she runs,
laughing, leaving horse and rider in the dust.
19-25 “Are you the one who gave the horse his prowess
and adorned him with a shimmering mane?
Did you create him to prance proudly
and strike terror with his royal snorts?
He paws the ground fiercely, eager and spirited,
then charges into the fray.
He laughs at danger, fearless,
doesn’t shy away from the sword.
The banging and clanging
of quiver and lance don’t faze him.
He quivers with excitement, and at the trumpet blast
races off at a gallop.
At the sound of the trumpet he neighs mightily,
smelling the excitement of battle from a long way off,
catching the rolling thunder of the war cries.
26-30 “Was it through your know-how that the hawk learned to fly,
soaring effortlessly on thermal updrafts?
Did you command the eagle’s flight,
and teach her to build her nest in the heights,
Perfectly at home on the high cliff face,
invulnerable on pinnacle and crag?
From her perch she searches for prey,
spies it at a great distance.
Her young gorge themselves on carrion;
wherever there’s a roadkill, you’ll see her circling.”
40 1-2 God then confronted Job directly:
“Now what do you have to say for yourself?
Are you going to haul me, the Mighty One, into court and press charges?”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 11, 2017
Read: Ephesians 2:1–9
Made Alive in Christ
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 2:3 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit
INSIGHT
What does the phrase “dead in your sins” mean? (Eph. 2:1). Dead means lifeless, powerless, inanimate. It means we were incapable of doing anything to change our situation. Sin refers to our rebellion against God. Humanity instinctively rejects God, and this rebellion is expressed through words, deeds, and attitudes.
The spiritually dead have no relationship with God. To be spiritually dead means we are completely cut off from Him and unable to reach out to Him. We cannot fix the things we’ve done that offended Him. We can’t apologize to God for rebelling against Him, for pretending He doesn’t exist, and for living as though we are God.
Any solution to our deadness must come from somewhere other than us. Through Jesus God took action to bring our spiritually dead hearts to life and restore us to a right relationship with Him. What amazing grace!
Adapted from Grace: Accepting God’s Gift to You by Constantine Campbell. Read more at discoveryseries.org/q0613.
It’s All a Gift!
By Sheridan Voysey
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8
London’s Café Rendezvous has nice lighting, comfortable couches, and the smell of coffee in the air. What it doesn’t have are prices. Originally started as a business by a local church, the café was transformed a year after it started. The managers felt that God was calling them to do something radical—make everything on the menu free. Today you can order a coffee, cake, or sandwich without cost. There isn’t even a donation jar. It’s all a gift.
I asked the manager why they were so generous. “We’re just trying to treat people the way God treats us,” he said. “God gives to us whether we thank him or not. He’s generous to us beyond our imaginations.”
Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. Rev.22:17
Jesus died to rescue us from our sins and reconcile us with God. He rose from the grave and is alive now. Because of this, every wrong thing we’ve done can be forgiven, and we can have new life today (Eph. 2:1–5). And one of the most amazing things about this is that it is all free. We can’t buy the new life Jesus offers. We can’t even donate toward the cost (vv. 8–9). It’s all a gift.
As the folks at Café Rendezvous serve their cakes and coffees, they give people a glimpse of God’s generosity. You and I are offered eternal life for free because Jesus has paid the bill.
Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. Revelation 22:17
Eternal life is a free gift ready to be received.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 11, 2017
Individuality
Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…" —Matthew 16:24
Individuality is the hard outer layer surrounding the inner spiritual life. Individuality shoves others aside, separating and isolating people. We see it as the primary characteristic of a child, and rightly so. When we confuse individuality with the spiritual life, we remain isolated. This shell of individuality is God’s created natural covering designed to protect the spiritual life. But our individuality must be yielded to God so that our spiritual life may be brought forth into fellowship with Him. Individuality counterfeits spirituality, just as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself, but individuality corrupts that human nature for its own purposes.
The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-will. We hinder our spiritual growth more than any other way by continually asserting our individuality. If you say, “I can’t believe,” it is because your individuality is blocking the way; individuality can never believe. But our spirit cannot help believing. Watch yourself closely when the Spirit of God is at work in you. He pushes you to the limits of your individuality where a choice must be made. The choice is either to say, “I will not surrender,” or to surrender, breaking the hard shell of individuality, which allows the spiritual life to emerge. The Holy Spirit narrows it down every time to one thing (see Matthew 5:23-24). It is your individuality that refuses to “be reconciled to your brother” (Matthew 5:24). God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself, He cannot. “…let him deny himself…”— deny his independent right to himself. Then the real life-the spiritual life-is allowed the opportunity to grow.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 11, 2017
No Unmovable Walls - #8066
If there was one symbol of the Cold War years and a world divided between Communist and free, it had to be the Berlin Wall, of course. Some of the most dramatic images of the last half of the 20th Century involve that wall - the wall the Communists built to divide East Berlin from democratic West Berlin. There are pictures of the barbed wire along the top of the wall, the armed guards, the people who risked everything to try to escape from behind that wall, and the people who died trying. I think I was like most of the people on this planet to be honest. I mean we pretty much kind of thought that Berlin Wall would always be there. We couldn't imagine how it would ever be taken down. But go to Berlin today. The wall is gone, and it came down almost overnight. The wall we thought would always be there - gone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Unmovable Walls."
Now, it may be that there's a wall in your life that looks like it will always be there. It's hard to imagine how it would ever come down. But God doesn't know anything about unmovable walls. He's been tearing them down for a long, long time.
In our word for today from the Word of God, for example. The Jewish people had been in captivity in another land for 70 years, living under the rule now of the pagan King Cyrus. It was hard to imagine how they'd ever get back home. In Ezra 1:1, the Bible says this. "The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, King of Persia." Verse 3 tells us about the king's proclamation that said, "Anyone of His people among you - may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem and build the temple of the Lord...And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold." This was incredible! This was about as likely humanly as the Berlin Wall coming down, but God moved the heart of the most powerful man on earth. And the wall between Persia and Israel came crashing down.
Now this kind of miracle is actually reported all through scripture. God changed the hard heart of Pharaoh to let the Jews - his major labor force - just walk out of Egypt. Who would have figured? When Saul didn't want to be Israel's first king, the Bible says, "God changed Saul's heart" (1 Samuel 10:9). When God wanted Peter to take the Gospel to a Gentile military commander, Peter's strong Jewishness - and his lifetime dislike of Gentiles - was a major wall of prejudice. But with one vision, God tore down that wall, and Peter went willingly into Gentile territory for Jesus. When Saul of Tarsus was determined to stamp out Christianity before it spread, God changed the heart of the persecutor into the heart of a disciple of Jesus in a moment.
Walls. Impossible walls. Things that look like they will never change. Listen, God specializes in these kinds of things. And right now He's calling you to believe Him, to pray to Him in faith, for a wall in your life to come down. Whether it's a wall in a relationship, a person who seems like they will never come to Christ, maybe a son or daughter who looks like they will never leave their prodigal ways, people who are standing in the way of something God wants - any wall that stands in the way of the will and the working of God. Come against that wall in prayer, unleashing all the power of God on that wall.
Pray especially for hearts. God's wall-demolishing miracles often begin with the miracle of a heart changing that only God can change. He promises in Ezekiel 36:26 that "I will put a new heart in you, and I will take that stony, hard heart and I will put in there a soft heart of flesh."
No matter how high that wall, no matter how long it's been there, it is not unmovable. If God wants it gone and if you'll believe Him for it, that wall is coming down!