Max Lucado Daily: GOD INVITES OUR APPROACH
Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy! And how do children approach their daddies? When a five-year-old spots his father in the parking lot, how does he react?
Yippee! was screamed by a redheaded boy wearing a Batman backpack as he ran to his dad.
Pop!” Over here! Push me!—yelled another little boy wearing a Boston Red Sox cap who scooted straight to the swings on the playground.
You know what I didn’t hear? Father, it is most gracious of thee to drive thy car to my place of education . Please know of my deep gratitude for your benevolence. For thou art splendid in thy attentive care and diligent in thy dedication.”
I heard kids who were happy to see their dads and eager to speak to them! God invites us to approach Him in the same manner. What a relief!
Read more Before Amen
Exodus 20
1-2 God spoke all these words:
I am God, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of a life of slavery.
3 No other gods, only me.
4-6 No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.
7 No using the name of God, your God, in curses or silly banter; God won’t put up with the irreverent use of his name.
8-11 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.
12 Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.
13 No murder.
14 No adultery.
15 No stealing.
16 No lies about your neighbor.
17 No lusting after your neighbor’s house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.
18-19 All the people, experiencing the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and the smoking mountain, were afraid—they pulled back and stood at a distance. They said to Moses, “You speak to us and we’ll listen, but don’t have God speak to us or we’ll die.”
20 Moses spoke to the people: “Don’t be afraid. God has come to test you and instill a deep and reverent awe within you so that you won’t sin.”
21 The people kept their distance while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.
22-26 God said to Moses, “Give this Message to the People of Israel: ‘You’ve experienced firsthand how I spoke with you from Heaven. Don’t make gods of silver and gods of gold and then set them alongside me. Make me an earthen Altar. Sacrifice your Whole-Burnt-Offerings, your Peace-Offerings, your sheep, and your cattle on it. Every place where I cause my name to be honored in your worship, I’ll be there myself and bless you. If you use stones to make my Altar, don’t use dressed stones. If you use a chisel on the stones you’ll profane the Altar. Don’t use steps to climb to my Altar because that will expose your nakedness.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Read: Ephesians 3:14–19
A Prayer for the Ephesians
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 3:15 The Greek for family (patria) is derived from the Greek for father (pater).
INSIGHT
Today’s passage describes the overflowing riches of God’s grace, which is accessed through the Holy Spirit. God’s love is infinite and therefore beyond our understanding, but the Spirit enables our comprehension. Life-transformation is in view when we are told to be “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19); spending time with God transforms how we live. Experiential knowledge of the God of grace should flow over into what we say, think, feel, and do. Life is filled with ever-changing circumstances that may cause joy, sadness, satisfaction, or stress. But no matter what we experience, God is always near.
What are you struggling with now? How does the immeasurable love of Christ and God’s never-ending presence encourage you? -Dennis Fisher
Of Spiders and God’s Presence
By Adam Holz
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. Ephesians 3:16
Spiders. I don’t know any kid who likes them. At least not in their rooms . . . at bedtime. But as she was getting ready for bed, my daughter spied one dangerously close to her bed. “Daaaad!!!!! Spiiiderrr!!!!!” she hollered. Despite my determination, I couldn’t find the eight-legged interloper. “He’s not going to hurt you,” I reassured her. She wasn’t convinced. It wasn’t until I told her I’d stay next to her top bunk and stand guard that she agreed to get in bed.
As my daughter settled in, I held her hand. I told her, “I love you so much. I’m right here. But you know what? God loves you even more than Daddy and Mommy. And He’s very close. You can always pray to Him when you’re scared.” That seemed to comfort her, and peaceful sleep came quickly.
Lord, thank You for always being close by.
Scripture repeatedly reassures us God is always near (Psalm 145:18; Romans 8:38–39; James 4:7–8), but sometimes we struggle to believe it. Perhaps that’s why Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus to have strength and power to grasp that truth (Ephesians 3:16). He knew that when we’re frightened, we can lose track of God’s proximity. But just as I lovingly held my daughter as she went to sleep that night, so our loving heavenly Father is always as close to us as a prayer.
Lord, thank You for always being close by. Please give us strength and power in our hearts to remember You are near, You love us deeply, and we can always call out to You.
God is always near in spite of our fears.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Do You Really Love Him?
She has done a good work for Me. —Mark 14:6
If what we call love doesn’t take us beyond ourselves, it is not really love. If we have the idea that love is characterized as cautious, wise, sensible, shrewd, and never taken to extremes, we have missed the true meaning. This may describe affection and it may bring us a warm feeling, but it is not a true and accurate description of love.
Have you ever been driven to do something for God not because you felt that it was useful or your duty to do so, or that there was anything in it for you, but simply because you love Him? Have you ever realized that you can give things to God that are of value to Him? Or are you just sitting around daydreaming about the greatness of His redemption, while neglecting all the things you could be doing for Him? I’m not referring to works which could be regarded as divine and miraculous, but ordinary, simple human things— things which would be evidence to God that you are totally surrendered to Him. Have you ever created what Mary of Bethany created in the heart of the Lord Jesus? “She has done a good work for Me.”
There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him even small gifts of surrender, just to show how genuine our love is for Him. To be surrendered to God is of more value than our personal holiness. Concern over our personal holiness causes us to focus our eyes on ourselves, and we become overly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, out of fear of offending God. “…but perfect love casts out fear…” once we are surrendered to God (1 John 4:18). We should quit asking ourselves, “Am I of any use?” and accept the truth that we really are not of much use to Him. The issue is never of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. Once we are totally surrendered to God, He will work through us all the time.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Focusing On the Rescue - #8118
I was in downtown Oklahoma City, and I had the privilege to visit the scene of the Oklahoma City bombing back in April of 1995. I don't think any of us who were alive at that time will ever forget the images of the day that that Federal Office Building was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. The images of that devastated building and of the frantic rescue efforts there, a baby in a fireman's arms. It was a day of heart-wrenching tragedy and it was a day of incredible heroism. Literally, an entire city dropped everything to respond in whatever way they could to this life-or-death situation. The job was clear that day: rescue the dying whatever it takes.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Focusing On the Rescue."
When Jesus came, the job was clear: rescue the dying whatever it takes. Our word for today from the Word of God is in Luke 19:10, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." God's Son came here to aggressively pursue and rescue lost people like those rescuers going into the wreckage of that building. The "save" word here isn't just a theological concept-it's a rescue word as in what those rescuers did in Oklahoma City or at Ground Zero. If they didn't get to the people trapped in that building and save them, they would die.
Then Jesus says to us in John 20:21, "As the Father has sent Me, I'm sending you." Our job is clear-to rescue the dying people around us whatever it takes. Paul makes our responsibility very clear when he says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, "We are Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you..." Notice the passion here, the urgency "We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God."
See, that's why you are where you are-in your school, in that neighborhood, that organization you're in, your workplace. Jesus put you there to be His personal representative to that group of people. It's a divine assignment. So, how are you doing? He's put you there to, well as they say in kindergarten, "show and tell" them about Jesus. You need to show them what Jesus is like by your attitude and your actions and your treatment of them. But you can't just show-you have to tell.
Look, they're never going to guess that Jesus died on the cross to pay for their sins just because you're a nice person. You have to tell them. And it really is a life-or-death assignment. See, sin carries an eternal death penalty which can only be canceled one way-by a person putting their total trust in the One who paid that penalty for them - in Jesus. Jesus took their hell so they don't have to, but chances are they don't know that. It's up to you to lovingly deliver that life-saving message. Your job is clear, rescue the dying whatever it takes. It's easy to forget that most important mission of all.
But they didn't forget that mission that day in Oklahoma City, or that awful day in Ground Zero in New York City, because they knew the lives of dying people were at stake. They dropped everything. And I think that's what we've forgotten-that the people in hell will look just like the people we work with, we go to school with, we live near. They don't look like they're spiritually dying, but the sentence for sin is very clear.
You have to ask Jesus to give you His broken heart for those people; His eyes to see what He sees when He looks at the people around you. Would you dare to pray this prayer? "Go ahead, God, and break my heart for the lost people in my personal world."
Churches forget what our life-or-death mission is and all of us rescuers tend to forget it. We do what's easy-just talk to the people who are already safe. But when you realize that people's lives, people's eternities are in the balance, you put everything else on hold to save them.
The job is clear, rescue the dying whatever it takes.