Max Lucado Daily: CHAT WITH GOD IN THE CLOSET
Religious leaders loved to make theater out of their prayers. The show nauseated Jesus. In Matthew 6:6 He said, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and He will reward you.”
The words surely stunned Jesus’ audience. The people were simple farmers and stonemasons. They couldn’t enter the temple, but they could enter their closets. What was the point? Jesus is low on fancy but high on accessibility. You need not woo him with location or wow him with eloquence! It’s the power of a simple prayer.
Join me every day for four weeks to pray four minutes…a simple prayer. Then, get ready to connect with God like never before!
Read more Before Amen
Exodus 18
1-4 Jethro, priest of Midian and father-in-law to Moses, heard the report of all that God had done for Moses and Israel his people, the news that God had delivered Israel from Egypt. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken in Zipporah, Moses’ wife who had been sent back home, and her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (Sojourner) for he had said, “I’m a sojourner in a foreign land”; the name of the other was Eliezer (God’s-Help) because “The God of my father is my help and saved me from death by Pharaoh.”
5-6 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses his sons and his wife there in the wilderness where he was camped at the mountain of God. He had sent a message ahead to Moses: “I, your father-in-law, am coming to you with your wife and two sons.”
7-8 Moses went out to welcome his father-in-law. He bowed to him and kissed him. Each asked the other how things had been with him. Then they went into the tent. Moses told his father-in-law the story of all that God had done to Pharaoh and Egypt in helping Israel, all the trouble they had experienced on the journey, and how God had delivered them.
9-11 Jethro was delighted in all the good that God had done for Israel in delivering them from Egyptian oppression. Jethro said, “Blessed be God who has delivered you from the power of Egypt and Pharaoh, who has delivered his people from the oppression of Egypt. Now I know that God is greater than all gods because he’s done this to all those who treated Israel arrogantly.”
12 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a Whole-Burnt-Offering and sacrifices to God. And Aaron, along with all the elders of Israel, came and ate the meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.
13-14 The next day Moses took his place to judge the people. People were standing before him all day long, from morning to night. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What’s going on here? Why are you doing all this, and all by yourself, letting everybody line up before you from morning to night?”
15-16 Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me with questions about God. When something comes up, they come to me. I judge between a man and his neighbor and teach them God’s laws and instructions.”
17-23 Moses’ father-in-law said, “This is no way to go about it. You’ll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can’t do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They’ll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They’ll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they’ll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also.”
24-27 Moses listened to the counsel of his father-in-law and did everything he said. Moses picked competent men from all Israel and set them as leaders over the people who were organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They took over the everyday work of judging among the people. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but in the routine cases they were the judges. Then Moses said good-bye to his father-in-law who went home to his own country.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 19, 2018
Read: 2 Corinthians 9:10–15
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
INSIGHT
A careful reading of 2 Corinthians 9 is quite eye-opening. One of the things we see is a cycle of giving that includes the gracious giving of God, the generous giving of those who have received from God, and the giving of thanks from those who have received from God through others. The abundant giving of God is prominent (v. 8). His giving is evident in nature and other areas (v. 10). He enriches us so we can be generous (v. 11), and His gifts include grace that cannot be measured (v. 14). His ultimate gift (the gift of His Son) is “indescribable”—words are inadequate to communicate its worth (v. 15). Generous givers are next in the cycle. Having been enriched by God, the riches received are to be shared with others, especially with those in the family of God (vv. 1–5; see also Galatians 6:10). Lastly, the giving cycle continues with the giving of thanks—thanksgiving to God, the giver of every good and perfect gift. People are recipients of and conduits for God’s bounty, and God—the ultimate Giver—gets the thanks and the glory!
What are some ways you can participate in the cycle of giving? -Arthur Jackson
Not Enough?
By Lisa Samra
Do not forget to do good and to share with others. Hebrews 13:16
On the way home from church, my daughter sat in the backseat enjoying Goldfish crackers as my other children implored her to share. Trying to redirect the conversation, I asked the hoarder of snacks, “What did you do in class today?” She said they made a basket of bread and fish because a child gave Jesus five loaves and two fish that Jesus used to feed more than 5,000 people (John 6:1–13).
“That was very kind of the little boy to share. Do you think maybe God is asking you to share your fish?” I asked. “No, Momma,” she replied.
When we believe that God is good, we can learn to open our hands to others.
I tried to encourage her not to keep all the crackers to herself. She was unconvinced. “There is not enough for everyone!”
Sharing is hard. It is easier to hold onto what we see in front of us. Perhaps we do the calculation and reason there is simply not enough for everyone. And the assumption is that if I give, I will be left wanting.
Paul reminds us that all we have comes from God, who wants to enrich us “in every way so that [we] can be generous” (2 Corinthians 9:10–11). The math of heaven isn’t a calculation of scarcity but of abundance. We can share joyfully because God promises to care for us even as we are generous to others.
Father, You take good care of me. Help me to think of others today and to share Your goodness with them.
When we believe that God is good, we can learn to open our hands to others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 19, 2018
Taking the Initiative Against Drudgery
Arise, shine… —Isaiah 60:1
When it comes to taking the initiative against drudgery, we have to take the first step as though there were no God. There is no point in waiting for God to help us— He will not. But once we arise, immediately we find He is there. Whenever God gives us His inspiration, suddenly taking the initiative becomes a moral issue— a matter of obedience. Then we must act to be obedient and not continue to lie down doing nothing. If we will arise and shine, drudgery will be divinely transformed.
Drudgery is one of the finest tests to determine the genuineness of our character. Drudgery is work that is far removed from anything we think of as ideal work. It is the utterly hard, menial, tiresome, and dirty work. And when we experience it, our spirituality is instantly tested and we will know whether or not we are spiritually genuine. Read John 13. In this chapter, we see the Incarnate God performing the greatest example of drudgery— washing fishermen’s feet. He then says to them, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). The inspiration of God is required if drudgery is to shine with the light of God upon it. In some cases the way a person does a task makes that work sanctified and holy forever. It may be a very common everyday task, but after we have seen it done, it becomes different. When the Lord does something through us, He always transforms it. Our Lord takes our human flesh and transforms it, and now every believer’s body has become “the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, February 19, 2018
When You Can't Find the Trail - #8116
One of our team members is quite the woodsman and hiker. And one foggy Saturday morning, he volunteered to lead a group of men who wanted to go hike to this distinctive rock formation called Hawksbill Crag. He had the book on the trails in that area; a book written by the man considered the expert. My friend kept consulting the book as they went along, pretty confident that they would soon end up at Hawksbill Crag. They ended up lost in a poison ivy patch, and the fog wasn't helping much. As they tried to retrace their steps, they passed a house set back in the woods and they happened to see its owner outside. My friend called to him and asked him if he would help them get "un-lost." That man went above and beyond. He actually came to where they were, helped them make sense of the map that they had, and pointed them right to the trail that got them to their goal. Of course, it turns out he was the man who wrote the book.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You Can't Find the Trail."
Those men finally found the trail they needed to be on from the person who knew the trail best. There's not one of us who doesn't need that same kind of direction for our life! Most of us have lived long enough to have already tried several trails that looked good to us, that we were sure would lead us to the meaning we were looking for, and to the love we were looking for, and to the inner freedom and peace we've always wanted. But so far, no trail has led us there. We're lost. In fact, some of us have found ourselves standing in poison ivy rather than looking at the beautiful view we had hoped for.
But all the dead-end trails you've tried, all the fog, all the disappointments, all the brokenness, have been preparing you to meet the person who knows the trail better than anyone else. And He has our word for today from the Word of God. It's Jesus, of course, and we're reading His words in John 8:12. "Jesus said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" So, Jesus is offering here a relationship with Him that opens up that awesome possibility of being led by the very person who designed us in the first place, who wrote the book of our life.
So you don't have to "walk in darkness" any more. The problem is that we've all, as the Bible says, "...gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). We're lost. We're wondering which way is the right way because we've consistently chosen to go our own way instead of God's way. That's what the Bible calls sin. And we were never meant to blaze our own trail. There's a trail you were made for. But following our own trail has left behind us a trail of brokenness, guilt, restlessness, scars and tears. And ultimately our trail leads right over a cliff into an eternity without God and without hope.
But Jesus left His home in heaven to come where we are to actually give His life to pay for every wrong thing we have ever done. And today He is saying to you, "Will you follow Me from this point on? I'll forgive your sin, I'll come into your life, and I'll lead you on the trail you were created for." You'll have to resign from being your own guide; from depending on your religion to get you to heaven, and you just tell Jesus, "I'm Yours, Lord. I'm pinning all my hopes on You. You died for me. You've got me."
It may be that you're just tired of wandering, tired of feeling lost...off the right trail, and you are ready for the life you were made for. This is the day you can reach out to Jesus Christ, who will bring you into that very life that has your name on it. It begins when you say to Him, "I'm Yours."
Your new story could begin today. Our website is called ANewStory.com because it's all about helping you get that story started. I hope you go there today - ANewStory.com.
Don't walk any further down a trail that ultimately goes nowhere. You don't have to be lost one more day. With Jesus out in front from now on, you will finally be able to find what you've been looking for so very long.
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