Max Lucado Daily: PEACE THAT PASSES UNDERSTANDING - April 3, 2018
My friend, Christyn, can honestly say she discovered a peace that passes understanding. Little by little the gray clouds lifted, and the blue sky began to peek through. Recently she and her family went back to see her daughter’s doctors in Minnesota. Seven months earlier, Rebecca was barely surviving. Now, one day before her thirteenth birthday, she was vibrant and full of life. She was named the hospital’s walking miracle. Christyn wrote, “I watched these interactions with a silent sense of awe. It’s easy to praise God during seasons of wellness. But it was during my greatest distress when I felt the Lord’s presence poured upon me. And it was in those heartbreaking moments I learned to trust this God who provided unimaginable strength during unimaginable pain.”
He will help you as well, my friend. Guard your thoughts and trust your Father!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Leviticus 7
1-6 “These are the instructions for the Compensation-Offering. It is most holy. Slaughter the Compensation-Offering in the same place that the Whole-Burnt-Offering is slaughtered. Splash its blood against all sides of the Altar. Offer up all the fat: the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat encasing them at the loins, and the lobe of the liver that is removed with the kidneys. The priest burns them on the Altar as a gift to God. It is a Compensation-Offering. Any male from among the priests’ families may eat it. But it must be eaten in a holy place; it is most holy.
7-10 “The Compensation-Offering is the same as the Absolution-Offering—the same rules apply to both. The offering belongs to the priest who makes atonement with it. The priest who presents a Whole-Burnt-Offering for someone gets the hide for himself. Every Grain-Offering baked in an oven or prepared in a pan or on a griddle belongs to the priest who presents it. It’s his. Every Grain-Offering, whether dry or mixed with oil, belongs equally to all the sons of Aaron.
11-15 “These are the instructions for the Peace-Offering which is presented to God. If you bring it to offer thanksgiving, then along with the Thanksgiving-Offering present unraised loaves of bread mixed with oil, unraised wafers spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour, well-kneaded and mixed with oil. Along with the Peace-Offering of thanksgiving, present loaves of yeast bread as an offering. Bring one of each kind as an offering, a Contribution-Offering to God; it goes to the priest who throws the blood of the Peace-Offering. Eat the meat from the Peace-Offering of thanksgiving the same day it is offered. Don’t leave any of it overnight.
16-21 “If the offering is a Votive-Offering or a Freewill-Offering, it may be eaten the same day it is sacrificed and whatever is left over on the next day may also be eaten. But any meat from the sacrifice that is left to the third day must be burned up. If any of the meat from the Peace-Offering is eaten on the third day, the person who has brought it will not be accepted. It won’t benefit him a bit—it has become defiled meat. And whoever eats it must take responsibility for his iniquity. Don’t eat meat that has touched anything ritually unclean; burn it up. Any other meat can be eaten by those who are ritually clean. But if you’re not ritually clean and eat meat from the Peace-Offering for God, you will be excluded from the congregation. And if you touch anything ritually unclean, whether human or animal uncleanness or an obscene object, and go ahead and eat from a Peace-Offering for God, you’ll be excluded from the congregation.”
22-27 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, Don’t eat any fat of cattle or sheep or goats. The fat of an animal found dead or torn by wild animals can be put to some other purpose, but you may not eat it. If you eat fat from an animal from which a gift has been presented to God, you’ll be excluded from the congregation. And don’t eat blood, whether of birds or animals, no matter where you end up living. If you eat blood you’ll be excluded from the congregation.”
28-34 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you present a Peace-Offering to God, bring some of your Peace-Offering as a special sacrifice to God, a gift to God in your own hands. Bring the fat with the breast and then wave the breast before God as a Wave-Offering. The priest will burn the fat on the Altar; Aaron and his sons get the breast. Give the right thigh from your Peace-Offerings as a Contribution-Offering to the priest. Give a portion of the right thigh to the son of Aaron who offers the blood and fat of the Peace-Offering as his portion. From the Peace-Offerings of Israel, I’m giving the breast of the Wave-Offering and the thigh of the Contribution-Offering to Aaron the priest and his sons. This is their fixed compensation from the People of Israel.”
35-36 From the day they are presented to serve as priests to God, Aaron and his sons can expect to receive these allotments from the gifts of God. This is what God commanded the People of Israel to give the priests from the day of their anointing. This is the fixed rule down through the generations.
37-38 These are the instructions for the Whole-Burnt-Offering, the Grain-Offering, the Absolution-Offering, the Compensation-Offering, the Ordination-Offering, and the Peace-Offering which God gave Moses at Mount Sinai on the day he commanded the People of Israel to present their offerings to God in the wilderness of Sinai.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 03, 2018
Read: Psalm 119:65–72
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65 Do good to your servant
according to your word, Lord.
66 Teach me knowledge and good judgment,
for I trust your commands.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I obey your word.
68 You are good, and what you do is good;
teach me your decrees.
69 Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies,
I keep your precepts with all my heart.
70 Their hearts are callous and unfeeling,
but I delight in your law.
71 It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees.
72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me
than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
INSIGHT
Psalm 119 expresses a deep longing to be transformed by the riches of God’s truth. The psalm echoes the theme of Psalm 1—that walking with God in integrity results in being “blessed,” having a flourishing life (v. 1).
Yet even as the psalm vividly describes pursuing God wholeheartedly, it also emphasizes that a rich life with God isn’t based on us. We are always in desperate need of God’s loving guidance to lead us into ever-greater depths of His truth (119:35–37, 88). The beauty of life with God is always based on His goodness (v. 68).
That is why—even in hard times—we can still find joy and hope. Even when our struggles are caused by our own sin (vv. 67, 71), we can trust in His mercy (v. 132). Because He is good and does what is good (v. 68), we can trust that He is always at work, drawing us closer to Him (v. 58).
Reflect on the intimate way Psalm 119 unites our calling to pursue God with our complete dependence on Him. Are you prone to emphasize one over the other? How might God be calling you to a deeper walk with Him? -Monica Brands
Sweet and Bitter
By Keila Ochoa
You are good, and what you do is good. Psalm 119:68
Some people like bitter chocolate and some prefer sweet. Ancient Mayans in Central America enjoyed chocolate as a beverage and seasoned it with chili peppers. They liked this “bitter water,” as they called it. Many years later it was introduced in Spain, but the Spaniards preferred chocolate sweet, so they added sugar and honey to counteract its natural bitterness.
Like chocolate, days can be bitter or sweet as well. A seventeenth-century French monk named Brother Lawrence wrote, “If we knew how much [God] loves us, we would always be ready to receive equally . . . from His hand the sweet and the bitter.” Accept the sweet and the bitter equally? This is difficult! What is Brother Lawrence talking about? The key lies in God’s character. The psalmist said of God, “You are good, and what you do is good” (Psalm 119:68).
You are good, and what you do is good. Psalm 119:68
Mayans also valued bitter chocolate for its healing and medicinal properties. Bitter days have value too. They make us aware of our weaknesses and they help us depend more on God. The psalmist wrote, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (v. 71). Let us embrace life today, with its different flavors—reassured of God’s goodness. Let us say, “You have done many good things for me, Lord, just as you promised” (v. 65 nlt).
Father, help me to see Your goodness even in times of trouble.
God is good.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 03, 2018
“If You Had Known!”
If you had known…in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. —Luke 19:42
Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly and the city was stirred to its very foundations, but a strange god was there– the pride of the Pharisees. It was a god that seemed religious and upright, but Jesus compared it to “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).
What is it that blinds you to the peace of God “in this your day”? Do you have a strange god– not a disgusting monster but perhaps an unholy nature that controls your life? More than once God has brought me face to face with a strange god in my life, and I knew that I should have given it up, but I didn’t do it. I got through the crisis “by the skin of my teeth,” only to find myself still under the control of that strange god. I am blind to the very things that make for my own peace. It is a shocking thing that we can be in the exact place where the Spirit of God should be having His completely unhindered way with us, and yet we only make matters worse, increasing our blame in God’s eyes.
“If you had known….” God’s words here cut directly to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind them. These words imply responsibility for our own faults. God holds us accountable for what we refuse to see or are unable to see because of our sin. And “now they are hidden from your eyes” because you have never completely yielded your nature to Him. Oh, the deep, unending sadness for what might have been! God never again opens the doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut– doors which had no need to be shut. Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him. Approved Unto God, 10 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 03, 2018
Avoiding a Fall - #8147
Their name calls up some of the most breathtaking spectacles in circus history - the Great Wallendas! This world famous circus troupe has amazed circus-goers with their high wire act, well, for about three generations. I was interested to read in Decision Magazine a while ago about Tino Wallenda's commitment to Jesus Christ. Tino described what he's done for a living - walking on a cable that is 5/8" thick, suspended between 30 to 100 feet in the air, at times suspended over dens of lions, or between buildings, or even over a pool of sharks! Not what I want to be when I grow up! Well, Tino said about his grandfather, Karl Wallenda, who started him out on a wire just two feet off the ground. He said he taught Tino how to hold his body rigid and how to place his feet on the wire and how to hold the pole with his elbows close to his body. But this great performer writes that "the most important thing that my grandfather taught me was that I needed to focus my attention on a point at the other end of the wire; a point that was unmoving and would not shift."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Avoiding a Fall."
Tino Wallenda says that he has found that his grandfather's secret for not falling off the high-wire is also the secret of keeping your balance in life - concentrating on something that never moves. Well, for him, that's Jesus Christ, and he's made the right choice.
Listen to our word for today from the Word of God. It's Hebrews 12:1-2, and it really reinforces this secret of stability. "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Notice, perseverance - hanging in there no matter what hits you, finishing safely. How do you do that? Well, it says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith."
So, don't look down at the risks below you. Don't focus on the people around you. Don't look back at what's behind you. Don't focus on how much farther you've got to go. That's how you fall. Focus on one unmoving point, and that is on Jesus, who, according to a verse that follows in the next chapter, is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
Right now, you may feel that you're suspended in mid-air with lots of uncertainties, lots of scary possibilities. And maybe you're worrying about falling. Maybe you're experiencing a major shaking that is really throwing you off balance - you've been betrayed, or disillusioned, maybe you've been laid off, or you've been hit hard with bad news, or you're just overwhelmed and wounded, or maybe you've failed.
Well, don't take your eyes off Jesus. If you focus on people or feelings or pressures or problems, you're going to lose your balance, and it's a long fall. But God's instruction is to "fix your eyes on Jesus." When you don't feel like being in His Word, that's when you need to be there the most. When it's hard to pray, that's when it's most important to pray. When you feel like giving up, that's the critical time to trust and obey. When your mind and your emotions are just all over the place, remember, God will according to Isaiah 26:3, keep "in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him." Several times a day, at the most difficult moments, say those three words that change everything - "Jesus is Lord."
When Corrie ten Boom and her beloved sister were imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp for harboring Jews, they lost everything. Corrie even lost her sister. But she spent her life traveling the world telling anyone who would listen this liberating lesson that God taught her in the midst of unspeakable evil and unimaginable loss. She said, "With Jesus, the worst may come, but the best remains."
Focus on the one you can never lose. Focus on Jesus.