Max Lucado Daily: IT’S NOT UP TO YOU
None of us pray as much as we should, but all of us pray more than we think, because the Holy Spirit turns our sighs into petitions and our tears into entreaties. He makes sure you get heard!
Now, suppose a person never learns about the sealing and the intercession of the Holy Spirit. This person may assume that salvation security resides in our works, not God’s; and that the power of prayer depends upon our prayer and not the prayers of the Spirit. What kind of life will this person lead? A parched and prayerless one. But what if you believe in the work of the Spirit? Will you be different as a result? You bet your sweet Sunday you will. Your shoulders will lift and your knees will bend as you discover the buoyant power of praying in the Spirit. A higher walk…deeper prayers. And most of all, a quiet confidence that comes from knowing it’s not up to you!
Read more Grace for the Moment II
Luke 17:20-37
When the Son of Man Arrives
20-21 Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, ‘Look here!’ or, ‘There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you.”
22-24 He went on to say to his disciples, “The days are coming when you are going to be desperately homesick for just a glimpse of one of the days of the Son of Man, and you won’t see a thing. And they’ll say to you, ‘Look over there!’ or, ‘Look here!’ Don’t fall for any of that nonsense. The arrival of the Son of Man is not something you go out to see. He simply comes.
24-25 “You know how the whole sky lights up from a single flash of lightning? That’s how it will be on the Day of the Son of Man. But first it’s necessary that he suffer many things and be turned down by the people of today.
26-27 “The time of the Son of Man will be just like the time of Noah—everyone carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ship. They suspected nothing until the flood hit and swept everything away.
28-30 “It was the same in the time of Lot—the people carrying on, having a good time, business as usual right up to the day Lot walked out of Sodom and a firestorm swept down and burned everything to a crisp. That’s how it will be—sudden, total—when the Son of Man is revealed.
31-33 “When the Day arrives and you’re out working in the yard, don’t run into the house to get anything. And if you’re out in the field, don’t go back and get your coat. Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms.
34-35 “On that Day, two men will be in the same boat fishing—one taken, the other left. Two women will be working in the same kitchen—one taken, the other left.”
37 Trying to take all this in, the disciples said, “Master, where?”
He told them, “Watch for the circling of the vultures. They’ll spot the corpse first. The action will begin around my dead body.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 06, 2018
Read: Matthew 26:36–39
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch[a] with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Footnotes:
Matthew 26:38 Or keep awake; also verses 40, 41
INSIGHT
In Matthew 26:36–39, we catch a crystal-clear glimpse of the Savior’s humanity. The Last Supper is over. Jesus has foretold Judas’s betrayal (v. 25) and predicted the disciples’ abandonment of Him (vv. 31–35). Now they’re in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus often brought His disciples (Luke 21:37; 22:39). As He prepares to talk to His Father, Jesus tells the disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me” (Matthew 26:38). Think of it! In this, His darkest hour, the Creator of the cosmos requests the company of His friends.
Jesus goes a short distance away to pray, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” (v. 39). Yet even Jesus doesn’t get all His prayers answered with a yes. Soon He will cry out from the cross, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (27:46). The cup of suffering will not be taken from Him. He will drink it in our place. And He will do it alone.
God has promised us, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). When I face my darkest moments, do I believe this? - Tim Gustafson
Dad at the Dentist
By Adam Holz
My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. Matthew 26:39
I didn’t expect a profound lesson about the Father’s heart at the dentist’s office—but I got one. I was there with my ten-year-old son. He had an adult tooth coming in under a baby tooth that hadn’t fallen out yet. It had to come out. There was no other way.
My son, in tears, pleaded with me: “Dad, isn’t there another way? Can’t we just wait and see? Please, Dad, I don’t want to have this tooth pulled!” It just about broke my heart, but I told him, “Son, it’s got to come out. I’m sorry. There’s no other way.” And I held his hand as he wriggled and writhed while the dentist removed that stubborn molar, tears in my eyes too. I couldn’t take his pain away; the best I could offer was to be present with him in it.
In that moment, I remembered Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, asking His Father for a different way. How it must have broken the Father’s heart to see His beloved Son in such agony! Yet there was no other way to save His people.
In our lives, we sometimes face unavoidable yet painful moments—just like my son did. But because of Jesus’s work for us through His Spirit, even in our darkest moments our loving heavenly Father is always present with us (Matthew 28:20).
Father, thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your beloved Son to save us, even though it must have broken Your heart to do so. In our times of joy or pain, thank You for Your Spirit holding and carrying us.
For more on the topic of suffering, see christianuniversity.org/CA211.
Our loving heavenly Father promises He is always present with us, even in our darkest moments.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 06, 2018
Intimate Theology
Do you believe this? —John 11:26
Martha believed in the power available to Jesus Christ; she believed that if He had been there He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a special intimacy with God, and that whatever He asked of God, God would do. But— she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha’s theology had its fulfillment in the future. But Jesus continued to attract and draw her in until her belief became an intimate possession. It then slowly emerged into a personal inheritance— “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ…” (John 11:27).
Is the Lord dealing with you in the same way? Is Jesus teaching you to have a personal intimacy with Himself? Allow Him to drive His question home to you— “Do you believe this?” Are you facing an area of doubt in your life? Have you come, like Martha, to a crossroads of overwhelming circumstances where your theology is about to become a very personal belief? This happens only when a personal problem brings the awareness of our personal need.
To believe is to commit. In the area of intellectual learning I commit myself mentally, and reject anything not related to that belief. In the realm of personal belief I commit myself morally to my convictions and refuse to compromise. But in intimate personal belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ and make a determination to be dominated by Him alone.
Then, when I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me, “Do you believe this?” I find that faith is as natural as breathing. And I am staggered when I think how foolish I have been in not trusting Him earlier.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 06, 2018
The Pilot Strike Mess - #8302
It was some years ago when we heard unsettling words on the evening news, "airline pilots strike." Man, I hate words like that! The threat of my particular airline and its pilots going on strike? Well, it threw everyone affected by it into a tailspin. (I guess that's a bad example.) Panicky travelers were scrambling to double book their reservations on another airline just in case. Resort areas serviced by this airline began to add up the zillions this might cost them. The White House started adding up the devastating financial cost on the economy-so much so that the President actually stepped in to at least delay the strike. The simple fact is, planes aren't going anywhere without pilots. If they don't show up for their job, it just gets real crazy real fast.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Pilot Strike Mess."
There actually has been a pilot's strike going on for a long time in many places. And there is a mess. The first pilot's strike took place in the first family when Adam was supposed to be piloting his family as God intended.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 2:16-17, and it says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'" When God gave these orders, there wasn't even an Eve yet. It was clearly up to Adam to make sure that God's plan was clear to his wife, and that their first family flew by God's flight plan.
Then in Genesis 3, verses 6 and following, it says, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."Excuse me, is the pilot on strike here? It goes on to say, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man, 'Where are you?'"
Adam and Eve end up totally out of the flight plan of God and ruined in the first spiritual crash in history, followed by millions of others over the years since. There is no doubt who God holds responsible for the spiritual condition of this family-and every family. He gives the man the flight plan. He comes looking for the man when there's a problem. In every life situation, when the pilot is not on the job, there is going to be a spiritual crash.
Maybe that's what's wrong where you live. Behind so many rebellious children, behind so many resentful or dominant or negative women is often a man who is not being a man. Not some chest-beating tyrant, but a real man like Jesus: taking moral leadership, involving God in every aspect of the family's life, being tender when it's time to be tender and firm when it's time to be firm, showing love and compassion and mercy, leading his family to God-to God's love and to God's answers.
If you're a husband or father, did I just describe you and your family? Well, it's supposed to be that way. In fact, you can expect God to come calling your name someday as He did Adam's that day in the garden. He'll ask you to give account for the kind of spiritual pilot you were for the people He entrusted to you. Sorry, but there's no passing the buck on this one, no delegating your God-given assignment, no excuses that you were too busy with less important things. The buck stops with the man for the spiritual and emotional health of his marriage and his family.
God knows your weaknesses, and He's anxious to empower you with His resources to be the man you need to be. But you have to surrender to Him so He can give you all you need. God has put you, as the man, in the pilot's seat of your family. If the pilot in on strike, the results a mess-maybe even a crash. Be sure you have God's flight plan, that you show up for your job, and experience the joy of taking your family where God wants them to go.
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