Max Lucado Daily: A PASTURE FOR THE SOUL
When God gave the Ten Commandments and it came to Sabbath rest, His message was clear: If creation didn’t crash when I rested, it won’t crash when you do! You know we need to rest. For a field to bear fruit, it must occasionally lie fallow. And for you to be healthy, you must rest. When David says in the 23rd Psalm, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures,” he’s saying, “My shepherd makes me lie down in his finished work.”
With His own pierced hands, Jesus created a pasture for the soul. He pried loose the huge boulders of sin. In their place He planted seeds of grace and dug ponds of mercy. Can you imagine the satisfaction in the heart of the shepherd when the work is completed and he sees his sheep rest in the tender grass? Can you imagine the satisfaction in the heart of God when we do the same?
Read more Traveling Light
Matthew 22:23-46
Marriage and Resurrection
23-28 That same day, Sadducees approached him. This is the party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother is obligated to marry his widow and get her with child. Here’s a case where there were seven brothers. The first brother married and died, leaving no child, and his wife passed to his brother. The second brother also left her childless, then the third—and on and on, all seven. Eventually the wife died. Now here’s our question: At the resurrection, whose wife is she? She was a wife to each of them.”
29-33 Jesus answered, “You’re off base on two counts: You don’t know your Bibles, and you don’t know how God works. At the resurrection we’re beyond marriage. As with the angels, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding your speculation on whether the dead are raised or not, don’t you read your Bibles? The grammar is clear: God says, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.’ The living God defines himself not as the God of dead men, but of the living.” Hearing this exchange the crowd was much impressed.
The Most Important Command
34-36 When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
David’s Son and Master
41-42 As the Pharisees were regrouping, Jesus caught them off balance with his own test question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said, “David’s son.”
43-45 Jesus replied, “Well, if the Christ is David’s son, how do you explain that David, under inspiration, named Christ his ‘Master’?
God said to my Master,
“Sit here at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
“Now if David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he at the same time be his son?”
46 That stumped them, literalists that they were. Unwilling to risk losing face again in one of these public verbal exchanges, they quit asking questions for good.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, January 15, 2018
Read: Colossians 3:9–17
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
INSIGHT
Colossians 3:11 lists ancient Colossae’s diverse people groups. Most familiar are the Jews (the children of Israel) and the Greeks (Gentiles in general—all non-Jews). Paul describes these two groups with the terms circumcised (Jews) and uncircumcised (Gentiles). Then he adds barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free. The distinctions between slave and free are obvious. Scythian refers to wild nomadic tribes and barbarian describes those who didn’t speak Greek and therefore were considered uncultured. The result is a spectrum of ethnically, linguistically, economically, and socially diverse people—all who found the ground to be level at the foot of the cross. - Bill Crowder
Pursuing Unity
By David C. McCasland
Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and in all. Colossians 3:11
Growing up during the 1950s, I never questioned racism and the segregation practices that permeated daily life in the city where we lived. In schools, restaurants, public transportation, and neighborhoods, people with different shades of skin color were separated.
My attitude changed in 1968 when I entered US Army Basic Training. Our company included young men from many different cultural groups. We soon learned that we needed to understand and accept each other, work together, and accomplish our mission.
Jesus, unite our hearts in love so we may encourage each other and honor You.
When Paul wrote to the first-century church at Colossae, he was well aware of the diversity of its members. He reminded them, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11). In a group where surface as well as deeper differences could easily divide people, Paul urged them to “clothe [themselves] with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (v. 12). And over all these virtues, he told them to put on love “which binds them all together in perfect unity” (v. 14).
Putting these principles into practice may often be a work in progress, but that is what Jesus calls us to. What we as believers hold in common is our love for Him. On that basis, we pursue understanding, peace, and unity as members of the body of Christ.
Amid all our wonderful diversity, we pursue an even greater unity in Christ.
Christ’s love creates unity in the midst of diversity.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, January 15, 2018
Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him…that just as Christ was raised from the dead…even so we also should walk in newness of life. —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral” — the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ‘white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, January 19, 2015
Unpacking Before You Get Home - #7311
My family calls it an idiosyncrasy, or maybe they say idiot-syncrasy? I'm not sure, but no matter whenever we have been on a trip, and whenever we get in, I've got to unpack as soon as we get home. Oh, yeah, it might be 2:00 in the morning, but there's Ron putting his clothes in the closet where they belong. Making sure his toothbrush is where it needs to be the next morning. Putting my books back where they came from. Everybody else is zonked! They're in a coma, and here's Mr. Compulsive busily restoring order. See, I'm not home until I'm unpacked.
Once everything is put away, I can start enjoying being home. Well actually, we should all unpack even sooner.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unpacking Before You Get Home."
Our word for today from the Word of God is in 1 Chronicles 16:43; it's one of those great examples out of a real flesh and blood life that is given to us in the Old Testament. It says, "Then all the people left each for his own home. And David returned home..." Notice these words, "...to bless his family." He knows what his mission is. "When I get home, I'm going to bless my family."
Now, David's been a pretty busy guy. He's busy with major battles. He's busy organizing God's people. He's busy running this whole kingdom. But now it's time to go home and he's going to bless them. It doesn't say, "David returned home to rest, or to recover, or to get his needs met." It says, "to bless his family." I'll tell you what, that's a great example for all of us, this selfless attitude; this others attitude when you get home no matter what the battles of the day have been.
Whether you're coming home from work, or school, or errands you've been on, I wonder if it could be said of you, (and let's put your name in there) "______ returned home to bless her family/to bless his family." Are you going home determined to be a blessing when you walk in the door? Now, that means you've got to unpack before you get home. You know why? Because we collect baggage all day long.
So, on your way home, as you're driving or riding, you need to unpack all those frustrations, all the stuff you left undone. It will be there again tomorrow. You don't carry it all in the door with you. And, as they say, you focus on the family. Leave your work at work, get ready to be with your family, not just around your family.
Be with them, it's a discipline. You sit there and you think through their day. What were they going through today? What were their needs when I left them this morning? What was on their mind? What was on their agenda? It's just kind of like loving your neighbor like you love yourself except that it's the people closest to you. Picture each one of them. Pray for them as you're headed home. And leave your concerns with your Lord. Don't dump them on them.
The alternative is to walk in the door completely preoccupied with yourself. Make sure that when you get home, you make it a point to lovingly touch every member of your family. Express an interest in each one's day. See if there's anything they need help on. You say, "Come on man, I'm out of gas when I get home!" Well, the Bible says, "He that refreshes others will himself be refreshed." So you get home and you set a climate of caring, and giving, listening, unselfishness. And you know what? You will reap what you sow. And you've come in loaded down with the stress of the day, you sow stress...uh huh, same law... except you're going to reap more stress.
So it doesn't matter if you're a Mom, or a Dad, a son, a daughter, or a brother, a sister - on your way home unpack your day. You're not really home until you're unpacked. Then pray this simple prayer, "Lord, make me a blessing from the moment I walk in the door." I think you'll like the results.
