Max Lucado Daily: A TIME CLAIMED FOR GOD - April 9, 2018
A friend described to me her daily ninety-minute commute. “Ninety minutes,” I commiserated. “Don’t feel sorry for me,” she smiled, “I use the trip to think about God.” She went on to describe how she fills the hour listening to entire books of the Bible. She recites prayers. By the time she reaches her place of employment, she’s ready for the day. She says, “I turn my commute into my chapel.”
Is there a block of time you can claim for God? Perhaps turning off the network news and opening your Bible. Set the alarm fifteen minutes earlier. Rather than watch TV as you fall asleep, listen to an audio version of the Bible or a Christian book. Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32 ESV).
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Mark 7:1-13
The Source of Your Pollution
7 1-4 The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren’t being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they’d give jugs and pots and pans).
5 The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, “Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?”
6-8 Jesus answered, “Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull’s-eye in fact:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they are worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
Ditching God’s command
and taking up the latest fads.”
9-13 He went on, “Well, good for you. You get rid of God’s command so you won’t be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel out of that by saying that it’s perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, ‘Gift! What I owed you I’ve given as a gift to God,’ thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God’s Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 09, 2018
Read: Isaiah 49:14–16
But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.
INSIGHT
Throughout Scripture, we gather a picture of how to leave behind a godly legacy. Psalm 78:4 reminds us to “tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.” Deuteronomy 6:5–7 declares: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
When we wholeheartedly love the Lord and others, live an obedient life that is pleasing to Him, and tell our family and others about the many wonders God has done throughout history and in our lives, we leave behind a legacy that can impact the next generation and the next and the next.
What legacy will you leave? - Alyson Kieda
Leaving a Legacy
By David H. Roper
A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. Malachi 3:16
Some years ago our sons and I spent a week on an abandoned backcountry ranch on the Salmon River, Idaho’s “River of No Return.”
One day, exploring the ranch, I came across an ancient grave with a wooden marker. Whatever inscription the marker may have borne had long since been weathered away. Someone lived and died—now was forgotten. The gravesite seemed tragic to me. After we got home I spent several hours reading about the history of the old ranch and that area, but could find no information about the person buried there.
May I be faithful to You today, Lord, as I spend my time loving others with Your love.
They say that the best among us is remembered for 100 years or so. The rest of us are soon forgotten. The memory of past generations, like our markers, soon fades away. Yet our legacy has been passed on through the family of God. How we’ve loved God and others in our lifetime lives on. Malachi 3:16–17 tells us, “a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. ‘They will be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession’ ” (nasb).
Paul said of David that he “served God’s purpose in his own generation” and departed (Acts 13:36). Like him, may we love the Lord and serve Him in our generation and leave the remembering to Him. “They will be Mine,” says the Lord.
May I be faithful to You today, Lord, as I spend my time loving others with Your love. Help me to trust You with the legacy I’m leaving behind.
Living for the Lord leaves a lasting legacy.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 09, 2018
Have You Seen Jesus?
After that, He appeared in another form to two of them… —Mark 16:12
Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.
You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). The man who was blind from birth did not know who Jesus was until Christ appeared and revealed Himself to him (see John 9). Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something, but we cannot order or predict when He will come. He may appear suddenly, at any turn. Then you can exclaim, “Now I see Him!” (see John 9:25).
Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe.
O could I tell, you surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can you receive it,
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.… We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. My Utmost for His Highest, January 6, 736 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 09, 2018
Entertainitis - #8151
Try to picture this: teenagers in a seminar for two hours, sitting on concrete the whole time, taking notes, and asking for more when it's over. Fantasyland, you say? No. Haiti. When I was doing youth outreach in Haiti, I was asked to do an early morning seminar for Christian young people in a gym where they were seated on concrete bleachers. I was told to teach for two hours. I did, and I was the first one done. So these kids gathered up their notes and rushed to catch the end of another seminar that hadn't finished yet. Sounds just like American young people you know? Right? Well, you know, when I got back to speaking to young people in America, I knew I had better be done in about twenty minutes or less or I'd be talking to myself. But before we're too rough on North American teenagers, let's realize that they have a disease that afflicts much of the North American Church - a disease that produces spiritual midgets.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Entertainitis."
It's not a new disease. In fact, we can find it in our word for today from the Word of God from John 6:25, among the people who had just experienced the excitement of Jesus' feeding 5,000 people. When He left them to go across the lake, they wanted more. The Bible says, "When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, 'Rabbi, when did you get here?' Jesus answered them, 'You are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.'"
When Jesus spoke to them about spiritual food, "They asked Him, 'What miraculous sign then will You give that we may see it and believe You?'" (John 6:30). By the time Jesus is finished talking to them about laying down His life and the shedding of blood, verse 66 says, "From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him." Now here was a crowd who was ready to follow Jesus as long as there was a good show, miracles, excited crowds, surprises, good feelings. But as soon as it got serious or demanding, they checked out.
Maybe this is the first known case of entertainitis - an interest in following Jesus as long as it's easy to take, as long as it's fun. I didn't really realize how shallow our faith is until I met Christians in other countries. They know how to pray powerfully and extensively. They're hungry, not for jokes and stories; they want solid Biblical teaching. They're interested in the substance of Christianity, not the style of the speaker. While we're having our socials, they're having revivals! While we accept mediocrity, they're expecting miracles.
We're a product of a media culture where the image, the subject changes every few seconds. But compared to believers in much of the rest of the world, we have like a "Sesame Street" faith. Now the first step toward a cure of this disease is to recognize that we have a disease and that we want a cure. We need to retrain our hearts to look for the truth in a message, not the entertainment value; to look for the Bible in a song, not just the beat; to quit expecting speakers to do all the work for us. "Mr. Speaker, if you'll come about 80% of the way to me, maybe I'll meet you with about 20% of me." See, spiritual grown-ups will pack the auditorium for a sermon, not just for a movie or a concert.
We need to remember that what we're involved in is a war, not a picnic. We need to commit ourselves to the spiritual discipline of being personally taught by God through Bible study every day. Dare to say, "Lord, would you deepen my shallow, 'entertain me' faith.'"
Entertainitis is a serious disease to deal with. Remember what happened to the people who had it first. They eventually abandoned Jesus.