Max Lucado Daily: MEDITATE ON GOOD THINGS - April 16, 2018
We worry about the past—what we said or did. We worry about the future—tomorrow’s assignments or the next decade’s developments. Worry takes a meat cleaver to our thoughts, energy, and focus.
But when you aren’t focused on your problem, you have a sudden availability of brain space. So, use it for good! Meditate on good things. According to the words of the apostle Paul, “Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things!” (Philippians 4:8).
Don’t let anxious, negative thoughts take over your mind. You cannot control the circumstances, but you can always control what you think of them.
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Mark 8:22-38
They arrived at Bethsaida. Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. Taking him by the hand, he led him out of the village. He put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him, and asked, “Do you see anything?”
24-26 He looked up. “I see men. They look like walking trees.” So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized that he had recovered perfect sight, saw everything in bright, twenty-twenty focus. Jesus sent him straight home, telling him, “Don’t enter the village.”
The Messiah
27 Jesus and his disciples headed out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. As they walked, he asked, “Who do the people say I am?”
28 “Some say ‘John the Baptizer,’” they said. “Others say ‘Elijah.’ Still others say ‘one of the prophets.’”
29 He then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?”
Peter gave the answer: “You are the Christ, the Messiah.”
30-32 Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive.” He said this simply and clearly so they couldn’t miss it.
32-33 But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works.”
34-37 Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
38 “If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 16, 2018
Read: Psalm 39:4–6
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.[a]
6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.
Footnotes:
Psalm 39:5 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 11.
INSIGHT
Can you think of a time in your life that served as a wake-up call? David wrote Psalm 39 recalling such a moment. Although he doesn’t describe the circumstances that roused him from a sleeplike existence, his song tells us how he came to sense the importance of the moments given to us.
At first, he’s troubled by those who seem to have no moral conscience. Sensing foolishness and danger in their presence, he decides not to speak—maybe so he won’t be like them or so that his words cannot be used against him (39:1–2).
But in self-imposed silence, David has a more troubling thought. He too has been living without wisdom. Time is getting away from him. He’s lost the joy and wonder of life. Realizing his own inclination to think life is found in the material things we accumulate, he calls out for help (vv. 3–6).
Recalling what he has already learned about the Source of joy and hope, he sees how reliant he is on the eternal God to help him see more than the momentary distraction of passing wealth (vv. 7–13).
Could this be a good time to see ourselves in David’s song? - Mart DeHaan
Just a Second
By Dave Branon
How fleeting my life is. Psalm 39:4
Scientists are pretty fussy about time. At the end of 2016, the folks at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland added an extra second to the year. So if you felt that year dragged on a bit longer than normal, you were right.
Why did they do that? Because the rotation of the earth slows down over time, the years get just a tiny bit longer. When scientists track manmade objects launched into space, they must have accuracy down to the millisecond. This is “to make sure our collision avoidance programs are accurate,” according to one scientist.
Lord, help us to use our time wisely for Your honor and glory.
For most of us, a second gained or lost doesn’t make much difference. Yet according to Scripture, our time and how we use it is important. For instance, Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians 7:29 that “time is short.” The time we have to do God’s work is limited, so we must use it wisely. He urged us to “[make] the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16 esv).
This doesn’t mean we have to count each second as do the scientists, but when we consider the fleeting nature of life (Psalm 39:4), we can be reminded of the importance of using our time wisely.
Lord, thank You for each moment You give us. May we strive to honor You with this gift by using our time wisely for Your honor and glory.
Don’t just spend time—invest it.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 16, 2018
Can You Come Down From the Mountain?
While you have the light, believe in the light… —John 12:36
We all have moments when we feel better than ever before, and we say, “I feel fit for anything; if only I could always be like this!” We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to even when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for the everyday world when we are not on the mountaintop. Yet we must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there.
Never allow a feeling that was awakened in you on the mountaintop to evaporate. Don’t place yourself on the shelf by thinking, “How great to be in such a wonderful state of mind!” Act immediately— do something, even if your only reason to act is that you would rather not. If, during a prayer meeting, God shows you something to do, don’t say, “I’ll do it”— just do it! Pick yourself up by the back of the neck and shake off your fleshly laziness. Laziness can always be seen in our cravings for a mountaintop experience; all we talk about is our planning for our time on the mountain. We must learn to live in the ordinary “gray” day according to what we saw on the mountain.
Don’t give up because you have been blocked and confused once— go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will. Never change your decisions, but be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 16, 2018
Letting It Happen To Your Heart - #8156
We've gotten all too used to seeing streams of refugees pouring into another land; into a place to escape whatever was happening in their country. I still remember the heartbreaking images from the end of the 20th Century. You know, there were tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees fleeing from the attacks of Serbian soldiers and police. Day after day, we would hear reports on the news of how many more refugees had arrived on the Albanian or Macedonian border, and how many were jammed into makeshift camps, desperate for food, for water, for shelter, and for a feeling of being human again. Most of the major networks had correspondents on the scene who would report from that sea of humanity and misery. In a moment of disarming honesty, one reporter said, "When you cover a tragedy like this, you have to put up a steel wall to protect yourself or you can't do your job." But then he went on to say, "But I have to confess to you, suddenly today my steel wall came down. I just lost it."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Letting It Happen to Your Heart."
Maybe it's time for your steel wall to come down. If it does, you'll be on your way to having a heart like your Savior's.
Our word for today from the Word of God is from Matthew 9:35. It's about a heart that feels what others are too busy or too hard to feel. It says, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages...preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
Now, the original Greek version of this passage reveals how really deep Jesus' feelings were. That Greek word for "had compassion" is actually rooted in the word for "entrails." In other words, when Jesus saw the need of these people, something happened way down deep inside the very deepest parts of His heart. He wants to give you a heart like His. And in the stress and pressures and superficiality of the world we live in, it's easy to inadvertently build a steel wall that keeps us from feeling the lostness of the people around us. But when you lose that, you've lost an essential part of what it means to have a Christ-like heart.
Yes, there are people who care too much. They make every burden their burden, and they end up burning out because they didn't turn those burdens over to Jesus, because they tried to make every need their concern instead of focusing on one or two and making a real difference in those.
But the far more common heart problem is not over-caring. No, it's under-caring. Most of us need to let the wall around us come down - to pray this transforming prayer, "Lord Jesus, help me see what You see when you see my neighbor, my co-worker, my friend, my family members, the people around me who have no relationship with You." See, even in ministry, it's easy to lose the broken heart that brought you into ministry in the first place. What once was passion; maybe it's just become a profession. You do most of the same things, but the passion is gone.
I heard recently of an urban pastor who often waited until sermon time to come to the platform. One Sunday, he wasn't there at sermon time. So, two deacons went back to the pastor's office and they found him looking out his window at the nearby houses and crying. One deacon said, "Oh, pastor, you're weeping over the needs of the people in this neighborhood, aren't you?" The pastor said, "No. I'm weeping because it doesn't move me like it used to."
Maybe that's you. Let the wall come down. Let Jesus put a piece of His caring, broken heart in you. Let Him help you see what He sees, feel what He feels for the people around you - for some people with a need He wants you to do something about.
Living with your heart open makes every day a mission and every day a holy adventure.