Max Lucado Daily: WE NEED A MIDDLE C
When author Lloyd Douglas attended college, he lived in a boardinghouse with a retired music professor who lived on the first floor. Douglas would stick his head in the door and ask, “Well, what’s the good news?” The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his chair and say, “That’s middle C. It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat. The piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C!”
You and I need a middle C. A still point in a turning world. An unchanging Shepherd. A God who can still the storm. A Lord who can declare the meaning of life. And according to David in Psalm 23—you have one. The Lord is your shepherd! He is your middle C!
Read more Traveling Light
Matthew 20:17-34
To Drink from the Cup
17-19 Jesus, now well on the way up to Jerusalem, took the Twelve off to the side of the road and said, “Listen to me carefully. We are on our way up to Jerusalem. When we get there, the Son of Man will be betrayed to the religious leaders and scholars. They will sentence him to death. They will then hand him over to the Romans for mockery and torture and crucifixion. On the third day he will be raised up alive.”
20 It was about that time that the mother of the Zebedee brothers came with her two sons and knelt before Jesus with a request.
21 “What do you want?” Jesus asked.
She said, “Give your word that these two sons of mine will be awarded the highest places of honor in your kingdom, one at your right hand, one at your left hand.”
22 Jesus responded, “You have no idea what you’re asking.” And he said to James and John, “Are you capable of drinking the cup that I’m about to drink?”
They said, “Sure, why not?”
23 Jesus said, “Come to think of it, you are going to drink my cup. But as to awarding places of honor, that’s not my business. My Father is taking care of that.”
24-28 When the ten others heard about this, they lost their tempers, thoroughly disgusted with the two brothers. So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.”
29-31 As they were leaving Jericho, a huge crowd followed. Suddenly they came upon two blind men sitting alongside the road. When they heard it was Jesus passing, they cried out, “Master, have mercy on us! Mercy, Son of David!” The crowd tried to hush them up, but they got all the louder, crying, “Master, have mercy on us! Mercy, Son of David!”
32 Jesus stopped and called over, “What do you want from me?”
33 They said, “Master, we want our eyes opened. We want to see!”
34 Deeply moved, Jesus touched their eyes. They had their sight back that very instant, and joined the procession.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Read: John 5:31–40
Testimonies About Jesus
31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.
33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.
36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study[a] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Footnotes:
John 5:39 Or 39 Study
INSIGHT
An Old Testament example of “experts” who missed the mark is the account of the “wise men” in the book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to explain his dreams, but these experts admitted, “No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans” (2:11). However, God enabled Daniel to explain the dreams, and he told the king: “No wise man . . . can explain . . . the mystery. . . , but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries” (vv. 27–28). The king’s experts were right to say no one can reveal mysteries except God, but they were clearly wrong that God does “not live among humans” (v. 11). The Scriptures tell us, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).
How does knowing Jesus is God and lives in us through the Spirit give you confidence in this world of uncertainty? - Sim Kay Tee
What Do the Experts Say?
By Tim Gustafson
These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. John 5:39–40
Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby writes of the “uncanny ability of experts to get things hopelessly, cataclysmically wrong.” A quick glance at recent history shows he’s right. The great inventor Thomas Edison, for instance, once declared that talking movies would never replace silent films. And in 1928, Henry Ford declared, “People are becoming too intelligent ever to have another war.” Countless other predictions by “experts” have missed the mark badly. Genius obviously has its limits.
Only one Person is completely reliable, and He had strong words for some so-called experts. The religious leaders of Jesus’s day claimed to have the truth. These scholars and theologians thought they knew what the promised Messiah would be like when He arrived.
Knowing the future is uncertain; knowing the One who holds the future is a sure thing.
Jesus cautioned them, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.” Then He pointed out how they were missing the heart of the matter. “These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39–40).
As another new year gets underway, we’ll hear predictions ranging from the terrifying to the wildly optimistic. Many of them will be stated with a great deal of confidence and authority. Don’t be alarmed. Our confidence remains in the One at the very heart of the Scriptures. He has a firm grip on us and on our future.
Father, whenever we are troubled or alarmed, help us to seek You. We commit this coming year and all it holds to You.
Knowing the future is uncertain; knowing the One who holds the future is a sure thing.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Why Can I Not Follow You Now?
There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.
At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.
Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ‘…the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Tools Without Power - #8084
When my wife and I inherited her grandparents' old farmstead in the country, we knew it was going to take some work. We were just grateful that we had a place to kind of get away, you know, and get some "r and r". We had several workmen there, racing a deadline to get some building and remodeling done before we had a lot of company. Well, on Thursday, they brought in some of the specialized tools they would need to finish the job on Friday. We went to bed Thursday night looking forward to having everything finished the next day. Now I don't usually wake up in the middle of the night, but this particular night I did. As I looked at our glow-in-the-dark digital clock, I noticed its' red numbers were flashing the same time at me, over and over again. This is not a good sign. Power outage! I almost went right back to sleep, figuring the power would come back on sooner or later. And then it hit me. Those workmen are going to be here shortly after sunrise, and they're not getting anything done without those special tools. And those tools won't work without power. Believe me, we didn't get back to sleep. We got right on the phone to the power company! Actually, hey, I did my part. I identified the problem. I asked my wife to get up and make the call. What a guy!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Tools Without Power."
Now those workmen have some really impressive tools, but they're useless if there's no power. Just like our tools. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 20:7. These words were penned by King David who had some impressive tools in his tool kit-including probably the greatest arsenal of horses and chariots in the Middle East at that time. And in those days, whoever had the most chariots and horses was the superpower. That would be David here. Here's what he says about his impressive battle tools, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."
King David says, "I've got some great weapons. I've got some great tools here, but that's not what I'm trusting in. It's not where my power comes from. I am depending totally on the Lord my God." Now David didn't sell his horses. He didn't burn his chariots. He used them. He just didn't depend on them. He knew where the real power is, and it is not in our human weapons.
So, let's talk about the tools we use to get things done, even in God's work. I call them the six "powerless p's": planning, promotion, politics, personalities, programs, persuasion. If we can just make a great plan, get the right personalities, put together a hot program, promote this just right...hey, we've got a winner here. Or if we just have the right connections, the right image, the right presentation, we've nailed it.
And God says all our impressive tools are as useless without His power as those workmen's tools were without electrical power. God has told us how to access His power with the only "p" that has any real power-prayer...the tool we often think of last...the tool we spend the least time on. Our actions, our use of time tell us that, no matter what our theology says, it's really our human weapons we're depending on most of the time. That's why we spend a lot more time in planning meetings than prayer meetings.
The frequency and the fervency of your prayers--that's the way to measure your dependency on God. If you're not praying often, if you're not praying passionately, with desperate dependency, then it's earth stuff you're really counting on, tools that are ultimately powerless.
The real enemies in your situation are ultimately spiritual enemies, in heavenly places, the Bible says. And our weapons are powerless to defeat those enemies. Only the Lord can do that. That's why, in Paul's words, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds." (2 Corinthians 10:3)
Listen, it's time to give God regular, dedicated time-to enter His holy presence and unleash His awesome power. Without that, all you've got are some impressive weapons, lying powerless on the ground because of a power failure, because of a prayer failure.
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