Max Lucado Daily: MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS CARD
Christmas cards. Punctuated promises! On this special day, can I share words from my favorite Christmas cards?
“He became like us, so we could become like Him.”
“Angels still sing, and the star still beckons.”
“God has given a Son to us. His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, Prince of Peace.” “He became like us, so we could become like Him.” (Isaiah 9:6)
And my favorite:
“If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.”
Merry Christmas everybody!
Read more In the Manger
Matthew 19
Divorce
1-2 When Jesus had completed these teachings, he left Galilee and crossed the region of Judea on the other side of the Jordan. Great crowds followed him there, and he healed them.
3 One day the Pharisees were badgering him: “Is it legal for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
4-6 He answered, “Haven’t you read in your Bible that the Creator originally made man and woman for each other, male and female? And because of this, a man leaves father and mother and is firmly bonded to his wife, becoming one flesh—no longer two bodies but one. Because God created this organic union of the two sexes, no one should desecrate his art by cutting them apart.”
7 They shot back in rebuttal, “If that’s so, why did Moses give instructions for divorce papers and divorce procedures?”
8-9 Jesus said, “Moses provided for divorce as a concession to your hard heartedness, but it is not part of God’s original plan. I’m holding you to the original plan, and holding you liable for adultery if you divorce your faithful wife and then marry someone else. I make an exception in cases where the spouse has committed adultery.”
10 Jesus’ disciples objected, “If those are the terms of marriage, we’re stuck. Why get married?”
11-12 But Jesus said, “Not everyone is mature enough to live a married life. It requires a certain aptitude and grace. Marriage isn’t for everyone. Some, from birth seemingly, never give marriage a thought. Others never get asked—or accepted. And some decide not to get married for kingdom reasons. But if you’re capable of growing into the largeness of marriage, do it.”
To Enter God’s Kingdom
13-15 One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: “Let the children alone, don’t prevent them from coming to me. God’s kingdom is made up of people like these.” After laying hands on them, he left.
16 Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 Jesus said, “Why do you question me about what’s good? God is the One who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you.”
18-19 The man asked, “What in particular?”
Jesus said, “Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as you do yourself.”
20 The young man said, “I’ve done all that. What’s left?”
21 “If you want to give it all you’ve got,” Jesus replied, “go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me.”
22 That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go.
23-24 As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.”
25 The disciples were staggered. “Then who has any chance at all?”
26 Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”
27 Then Peter chimed in, “We left everything and followed you. What do we get out of it?”
28-30 Jesus replied, “Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields—whatever—because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Read: Matthew 17:24–27
The Temple Tax
24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
INSIGHT
People in Jesus’s day worried over the basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter just as we do. But Jesus assures us of God’s care and provision by pointing us to His constant providential care for all the earth. Because we are more precious to God than all of creation (Matt. 6:25–30), Jesus reminds us, “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ . . . Your heavenly Father knows that you need [these things]” (vv. 31–32). Because we have a heavenly Father who loves and cares for us deeply, we can ask Him to give us what we need (7:9–11; 1 Peter 5:7). Paul encourages us to replace our anxieties with expectant trust and grateful prayer. The peace of God is the inner calm or tranquility that comes from a confident trust in God who hears our cries (Phil. 4:6–7).
In what ways has God provided for you this week? - Sim Kay Tee
What on Earth?
By Tim Gustafson
My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
When Andrew Cheatle lost his cell phone at the beach, he thought it was gone forever. About a week later, however, fisherman Glen Kerley called him. He had pulled Cheatle’s phone, still functional after it dried, out of a 25-pound cod.
Life is full of odd stories, and we find more than a few of them in the Bible. One day tax collectors came to Peter demanding to know, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” (Matt. 17:24). Jesus turned the situation into a teaching moment. He wanted Peter to understand His role as king. Taxes weren’t collected from the children of the king, and the Lord made it clear that neither He nor His children owed any temple tax (vv. 25–26).
Lord, thank you that You provide everything we need.
Yet Jesus wanted to be careful not to “cause offense” (v. 27), so He told Peter to go fishing. (This is the odd part of the story.) Peter found a coin in the mouth of the first fish he caught.
What on earth is Jesus doing here? A better question is, “What in God’s kingdom is Jesus doing?” He is the rightful King—even when many do not recognize Him as such. When we accept His role as Lord in our lives, we become His children.
Life will still throw its various demands at us, but Jesus will provide for us. As former pastor David Pompo put it, “When we’re fishing for our Father, we can depend on Him for all we need.”
Lord, teach us to bask in the wonderful realization that You provide everything we need.
We are children of the King!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
“Walk in the Light”
If we walk in the light as He is in the light…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. —1 John 1:7
To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.
The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.
I must “walk in the light as He is in the light…”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Directed By The Dispatcher - #8077
When a police officer shows up for his shift, he has no idea where he's going to end up that day. That's not really up to him. His car is connected to headquarters by way of radio – and on the other end sits that person who will tell him where he's going next – the dispatcher. An officer can be cruising along peacefully one minute and the next minute racing full speed to the scene of a crime. They go wherever the dispatcher sends them. It's that voice from headquarters who sends an officer to where he or she needs to be next.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Directed By The Dispatcher."
You don't have to be in law enforcement to have a life directed by the dispatcher. In fact, that's how you're supposed to live every day if you belong to Jesus Christ; listening to the inner voice from headquarters and doing immediately what the Heavenly Dispatcher tells you to do.
I've been intrigued as I have studied the lives of the most powerful people in history. Do you know who I believe that was? The First Century Christians. No one has impacted the world more for Christ than our spiritual progenitors did back then. And in a time when Christian lives are surrounded by a huge Christian subculture, the Book of Acts shows us a power in living that makes us look pretty lame. The Book of Acts is a blueprint for powerful, impact living; the way Jesus meant for His followers to live. And the Dispatcher is a major character in the story of the original Christians.
Here we go! In our word for today from the Word of God, Acts 8:26. Philip is in the middle of some amazing revival meetings in Samaria – until he is summoned away from them by the Voice from headquarters. "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road – the desert road...so he started out." The Dispatcher prompted Philip to leave the responsive multitudes in Samaria for some undescribed assignment on this desert road. Did the Dispatcher's orders make sense? No. Does Philip go anyway? Yes. Then he meets an official from the queen's court in Ethiopia and, "The Spirit told Philip, 'Go to that chariot and stay near it.' Then Philip ran up to the chariot." Again, Spirit-orders -- immediate response. The result? The official comes to Christ, and he is a man strategically positioned to help plant the Gospel on the continent of Africa with the good news.
Then it says, "the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away." And Philip is on to the next assignment given to him by heaven's Dispatcher, who is the Holy Spirit. Now, that same Holy Spirit, He lives in you if you know Christ. And each day, He wants to dispatch you on assignments from God. He may prompt you to make a phone call to someone, write an email, or send a text, or encourage someone, write a note, stop for someone in trouble, make a change in your plans or your route. He may urge you to speak to someone, or to introduce Jesus into a conversation.
Throughout your day, the Holy Spirit, God's Dispatcher, is attempting to direct you, and usually without explaining the why. And the reason isn't always immediately apparent. But your mission is to listen for those Spirit-promptings and obey those Spirit-promptings.
The problem is some of us are so programmed, so rigid, so busy, or so self-absorbed that we don't even have our spiritual radio on. And if we do, we can't hear the Spirit's transmission or we, as the Bible says, "Quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19), especially if His leading seems to be an intrusion on our plans or something we feel uncomfortable doing.
And when we quench the Spirit, we miss so much. The most powerful people in history, the original Christians, were tuned to heaven's channel and they simply did what they were dispatched to do. I call it Spiritaneity! One reason our lives are so often powerless is because we're dispatching ourselves and we're missing the exciting surprises of God's will for our day.
Each new morning, tune your heart to headquarters, and let heaven's Dispatcher send you on the assignments you were made for.