Max Lucado Daily: LIVING LOVED - May 2, 2018
The secret to loving is living loved. It’s the forgotten first step in relationships. Remember Paul’s prayer? “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love” (Ephesians 3:17 NLT).
Many people tell us to love. Only God gives us the power to do so. We know what God wants us to do. “This is what God commands. . .that we love each other.” (1 John 3:23). But how can we? How can we be kind to those who are unkind to us? How can we love as God loves? By being loved. By following the principle: receive first and love second. God loves you personally…powerfully…passionately! He loves you with an unfailing love. Others have promised and failed. But God has promised and succeeded!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Mark 11:19-33
At evening, Jesus and his disciples left the city.
20-21 In the morning, walking along the road, they saw the fig tree, shriveled to a dry stick. Peter, remembering what had happened the previous day, said to him, “Rabbi, look—the fig tree you cursed is shriveled up!”
22-25 Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, ‘Go jump in the lake’—no shuffling or shilly-shallying—and it’s as good as done. That’s why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you’ll get God’s everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it’s not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins.”
His Credentials
27-28 Then when they were back in Jerusalem once again, as they were walking through the Temple, the high priests, religion scholars, and leaders came up and demanded, “Show us your credentials. Who authorized you to speak and act like this?”
29-30 Jesus responded, “First let me ask you a question. Answer my question and then I’ll present my credentials. About the baptism of John—who authorized it: heaven or humans? Tell me.”
31-33 They were on the spot, and knew it. They pulled back into a huddle and whispered, “If we say ‘heaven,’ he’ll ask us why we didn’t believe John; if we say ‘humans,’ we’ll be up against it with the people because they all hold John up as a prophet.” They decided to concede that round to Jesus. “We don’t know,” they said.
Jesus replied, “Then I won’t answer your question either.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 02, 2018
Read: 1 John 4:13–16
This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
INSIGHT
Do you have a hard time relating to the love of God? Many of us think more with our heads than our hearts. John, a disciple of Jesus, is remembered as the apostle of love and referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23).
John wrote more on love than any New Testament writer. But he wasn’t always so inclined. The gospel writer Luke remembers the day John and his brother James wanted to see Jesus call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that had turned Jesus away (Luke 9:51–56). Jesus let the two brothers know that their lack of empathy didn’t reflect His heart. Yet Jesus probably wasn’t surprised. Early on, and maybe with a smile, He had affectionately called them “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17).
Yet John is the one who ends up being overwhelmed with the love of God and writes about the importance of loving others (1 John 3:16; 4:8, 16). What happened? Did he recognize the coldness of his own heart? Did he learn from Jesus that our ability to relate to the love of God may depend on our readiness to admit—and to be forgiven for—our lack of love? (John 3:16; Luke 7:37–50). - Mart DeHaan
Longing for God
By James Banks
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:2
One day my daughter was visiting with our one-year-old grandson. I was getting ready to leave the house on an errand, but as soon as I walked out of the room my grandson began to cry. It happened twice, and each time I went back and spent a moment with him. As I headed out the door the third time, his little lip began to quiver again. At that point my daughter said, “Dad, why don’t you just take him with you?”
Any grandparent could tell you what happened next. My grandson went along for the ride, just because I love him.
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
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How good it is to know that the longings of our hearts for God are also met with love. The Bible assures us that we can “know and rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16). God doesn’t love us because of anything we have or haven’t done. His love isn’t based on our worthiness at all, but on His goodness and faithfulness. When the world around us is unloving and unkind, we can rely on God’s unchanging love as our source of hope and peace.
Our heavenly Father’s heart has gone out to us through the gift of His Son and His Spirit. How comforting is the assurance that God loves us with love that never ends!
Loving Lord, thank You for Your compassion for me, proven at the cross. Please help me to obey and love You today.
God longs for us to long for Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 02, 2018
The Patience To Wait for the Vision
Though it tarries, wait for it… —Habakkuk 2:3
Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration. Moses endured, not because of his devotion to his principles of what was right, nor because of his sense of duty to God, but because he had a vision of God. “…he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue— he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision is of God because of the inspiration that comes with it. Things come to you with greatness and add vitality to your life because everything is energized by God. He may give you a time spiritually, with no word from Himself at all, just as His Son experienced during His time of temptation in the wilderness. When God does that, simply endure, and the power to endure will be there because you see God.
“Though it tarries, wait for it….” The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have already grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. The psalmist said, “What shall I render to the Lord…? I will take up the cup of salvation…” (Psalm 116:12-13). We are apt to look for satisfaction within ourselves and say, “Now I’ve got it! Now I am completely sanctified. Now I can endure.” Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. Paul said, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on…” (Philippians 3:12). If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing. But if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of spiritual relaxation.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 02, 2018
The Happiest and Saddest Lists Of All - #8168
For the most part, Spring is a season we really look forward to. I mean, everything's blooming, colorful. Unfortunately, though, Spring isn't just flowers-it's floods! Some folks who live by rivers and streams, well they hold their breath a little each Spring. Every year we see vivid pictures of whole areas submerged under floodwaters, and we hear interviews with victims who have lost a lot of their possessions. But invariably, you will hear those victims say, "But we're thankful that at least all of us are safe." You know it's true. I mean, things can be replaced...people can't. It was back in the spring of 1997; it was Kentucky's turn to get hit by major flooding. On the news they showed a list on the wall-a list that was pretty moving to see. At the top were these words: "Missing people," then the names of loved ones who were missing in the flood. But some of those names had a beautiful five-letter word scrawled over them: "Found."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Happiest and Saddest Lists Of All."
God may have a list like that-with the names of those who are lost, who are away from Him-who do not have a personal relationship with Him. It could be that your name is on that list. But look closely. God has written that other word over some of the names: "Found." That could be you.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 15:17-20. It's probably the most famous parable Jesus told. It's about a son who asks his dad for his share of the inheritance early. His dad agrees, and the son leaves his father, lives self-indulgently, blows everything he has, ends up broke and feeding pigs to stay alive. Back home, I wonder if his father had his son's name up on the wall with those words: "Missing Person."
The Bible says, "When he came to his senses, he said, 'I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." That would have been the day that the father stamped "found" over the name of his lost son.
For somebody listening right now, that's what God the Father wants to do for you today. This could be your "welcome home" day after being away from your Heavenly Father. You say, "After what I've done?" You're thinking about some of the things you've done or said or thought maybe while you've been away from God. We've all got things that we're not proud of, we're ashamed of, and that make us feel like that wandering son felt, "I'm no longer worthy."
But being forgiven and welcomed by your Heavenly Father is not about your worthiness. None of us is worthy of God's love or God's heaven. No, it's about God's love, God's unconditional love, vividly displayed when Jesus, His Son, took all your sin and all your hell when He died on that cross. If you're ready to "get up and go to your Father", let there be no question what God will do. "He ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him."
You've been one of the Father's "missing persons" long enough, haven't you? He's waiting to welcome you home-home where the love is, where the security is that you've never found away from Him. Tell Him right now that you're pinning all your hopes on Jesus and His death on your behalf-that you're coming home.
If you're tired of being away, if you're tired of being lost, I want to invite you to come to our website. It's called ANewStory.com, and it literally is there and planned and written for you; designed to be there for you at the point where you're ready to come home to Jesus. I think it will help you get the rest of the way there.
It's a joyful thing to see a name that was a "missing person" changed to "found." This very moment, God is ready, God is waiting to put "found" over your name.