Max Lucado Daily: BE KIND TO YOURSELF - May 10, 2018
Kindness at home. Kindness in public. Kindness in church and kindness with our enemies. Pretty well covers the gamut, don’t you think? Almost. Someone else needs your kindness. Who could that be? Well, it’s YOU! Since God is so kind to us, can’t we be a little kinder to ourselves?
Oh, but you don’t know me, Max. You don’t know my faults and my thoughts. You don’t know the gripes I grumble and the complaints I mumble. No, I don’t, but he does. He knows everything about you, yet he doesn’t hold back his kindness toward you. Has he, knowing all your secrets, retracted one promise or reclaimed one gift? He forgives your faults, calls you his ambassador, his follower, even his child. In God’s book you are a good thing. Be kind to yourself. God thinks you’re worth his kindness. And he’s a good judge of character.
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Mark 12:28-44
The Most Important Commandment
28 One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?”
29-31 Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”
32-33 The religion scholar said, “A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that’s better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!”
34 When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, “You’re almost there, right on the border of God’s kingdom.”
After that, no one else dared ask a question.
35-37 While he was teaching in the Temple, Jesus asked, “How is it that the religion scholars say that the Messiah is David’s ‘son,’ when we all know that David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said,
God said to my Master,
“Sit here at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet.”
“David here designates the Messiah ‘my Master’—so how can the Messiah also be his ‘son’?”
The large crowd was delighted with what they heard.
38-40 He continued teaching. “Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preening in the radiance of public flattery, basking in prominent positions, sitting at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they’ll pay for it in the end.”
41-44 Sitting across from the offering box, he was observing how the crowd tossed money in for the collection. Many of the rich were making large contributions. One poor widow came up and put in two small coins—a measly two cents. Jesus called his disciples over and said, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Read: Isaiah 33:17–22
God Makes All the Decisions Here
17-19 Oh, you’ll see the king—a beautiful sight!
And you’ll take in the wide vistas of land.
In your mind you’ll go over the old terrors:
“What happened to that Assyrian inspector who condemned and confiscated?
And the one who gouged us of taxes?
And that cheating moneychanger?”
Gone! Out of sight forever! Their insolence
nothing now but a fading stain on the carpet!
No more putting up with a language you can’t understand,
no more sounds of gibberish in your ears.
20-22 Just take a look at Zion, will you?
Centering our worship in festival feasts!
Feast your eyes on Jerusalem,
a quiet and permanent place to live.
No more pulling up stakes and moving on,
no more patched-together lean-tos.
Instead, God! God majestic, God himself the place
in a country of broad rivers and streams,
But rivers blocked to invading ships,
off-limits to predatory pirates.
For God makes all the decisions here. God is our king.
God runs this place and he’ll keep us safe.
INSIGHT
In today’s reading (Isaiah 33), King Hezekiah mourns the Assyrian oppression of Judah. Yet the promise Isaiah the prophet gives is that those who trust in God can see past their present reality to a time of triumph in which the promised Messiah will be victorious over all enemies. Jerusalem is where God’s kingdom will be realized (Jeremiah 3:17; Revelation 21:1–2, 10).
Today we may not be oppressed by a foreign power, but each of us can think of someone who has treated us unjustly. It’s comforting to know that our ultimate destiny is a place of peace and joy.
In what ways does recognizing you have a future heavenly home give you grace to face the challenges of life?
For further study see OT Survey: Ecclesiastes–Isaiah at christianuniversity.org/OT224. - Dennis Fisher
The Land of Far Distances
By David C. McCasland
Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar. Isaiah 33:17
Amy Carmichael (1867–1951) is known for her work of rescuing orphaned girls in India and giving them a new life. In the midst of this exhausting work there were times she called “moments of vision.” In her book Gold by Moonlight, she wrote, “In the midst of a crowded day we are given almost a glimpse of ‘the land of far distances,’ and we stand still, arrested on the road.”
The prophet Isaiah spoke of a time when God’s rebellious people would turn back to Him. “Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar” (Isaiah 33:17). To view this “land of far distances” is to be lifted above the circumstances of the immediate present and to gain an eternal perspective. During difficult times, the Lord enables us to see our lives from His viewpoint and regain hope. “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us” (v. 22).
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Each day, we can choose to look down in discouragement or lift our eyes to “the land of far distances,” to the Lord who is “our Mighty One” (v. 21).
Amy Carmichael spent more than fifty years in India helping young women in great need. How did she do it? Each day she fixed her eyes on Jesus and placed her life in His care. And so can we.
Lord, today we lift our eyes from the circumstances that discourage us to see You in Your splendor, and find peace.
Fix your eyes on Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Take the Initiative
…add to your faith virtue… —2 Peter 1:5
Add means that we have to do something. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves— God does that. But God will not give us good habits or character, and He will not force us to walk correctly before Him. We have to do all that ourselves. We must “work out” our “own salvation” which God has worked in us (Philippians 2:12). Add means that we must get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages that is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning— to instruct yourself in the way you must go.
Beware of the tendency to ask the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative— stop hesitating— take the first step. Be determined to act immediately in faith on what God says to you when He speaks, and never reconsider or change your initial decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do something, you are being careless, spurning the grace in which you stand. Take the initiative yourself, make a decision of your will right now, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you, saying, “I will write that letter,” or “I will pay that debt”; and then do it! Make it irrevocable.
We have to get into the habit of carefully listening to God about everything, forming the habit of finding out what He says and heeding it. If, when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we will know that the habit has been formed in us. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we have not yet been.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Old On The Outside, New On The Inside - #8174
Yes, it was during those days of tribulation when our son was learning to drive. He made an interesting observation about our family chariot. He said, "Hey, Dad, this car really runs smooth." That was interesting, because that car had 150,000 miles on it! It definitely showed it on the outside. I mean, look, it had celebrated about ten birthdays and you could tell. But a lot of parts had been replaced along the way. The reason that car ran so well? Well, it just had so many new parts on the inside!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Old On The Outside, New On The Inside."
When the Apostle Paul was writing our word for today from the Word of God, he must have been feeling a little like our old car. He was showing and feeling the mileage on the outside, but there was a lot of new on the inside. He talks about it in 2 Corinthians 4:16.
"We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Now make no mistake about it – the outside Paul was taking a beating...sometimes literally. Earlier in this chapter, he describes himself as "hard pressed on every side; (Maybe you can relate to that.) perplexed, persecuted, struck down." But though he's showing and feeling the mileage on the outside, he says God keeps renewing him on the inside.
Actually, that is the secret of Christian unsinkability! Twice in this chapter, once at the beginning and once at the end, Paul says triumphantly, "We do not lose heart." Now, how can that be when you are getting hammered from all sides? "We are being renewed day by day." The answer is a daily renewing in your spirit.
When you live in God's will, you understand that each day is a new beginning; that God gives you grace equal to that day (So if you have a light day, you get a light amount of grace. You got a heavy day, you get heavy grace). Like a watch that needs rewinding every morning, or like a phone that needs recharging. Our battery runs down every 24 hours, and God rewinds you if you make your first stop, your first conversation each morning time with Him. If you actually go boldly to His throne of grace, as He said to do, and you pick up that day's renewing grace and renewing perspective.
The daily replacement of "old parts" with "new parts" has kept a lot of us on the road even when the outside of us was showing the strain. You can be in a body that isn't working and still be joyful, positive, and purposeful – because of Christ. We've all known people like that haven't we? Your outer world can be caving in while on the inside there's still this settled peace because of Christ. Your outside can be slowed down by advancing years, but your spirit can still have the carbonation of a young person because Jesus renews you each day. You can be physically worn out, but still excited in your heart.
The key is not one dramatic repair job. It's a daily visit to the great soul-mechanic who will, for that day, fix or replace whatever inner part of you is worn or broken. So even when the outside is wearing out, you can still be running smoothly – because Jesus has put so much new on the inside!