Max Lucado Daily: LET GOD ACCEPT YOU - May 22, 2018
Do you think God could heal your angry heart? He asks the same question of you that he asked of the invalid in John 5:6, “Do you want to be healed?” Not everyone does. Anger may be part of your identity.
T.D. Terry’s stressful job stirred in him daily bouts of anger. A tree near his driveway had been tall. Then lost a few limbs. After some time it was nothing more than a stump. T.D. explained, “I took my anger out on the tree. I took an ax to it. I tore the limbs. I didn’t want to come home mad, so I left my anger at the tree.”
Let’s do the same. In fact, let’s take our anger to the tree on the hill. Leave it at the tree of Calvary. Let God accept you. Take a long drink from his limitless love, and cool down!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Numbers 12
Camp Hazeroth
1-2 Miriam and Aaron talked against Moses behind his back because of his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite woman). They said, “Is it only through Moses that God speaks? Doesn’t he also speak through us?”
God overheard their talk.
3-8 Now the man Moses was a quietly humble man, more so than anyone living on Earth. God broke in suddenly on Moses and Aaron and Miriam saying, “Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting.” The three went out. God descended in a Pillar of Cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam to him. When they stepped out, he said,
Listen carefully to what I’m telling you.
If there is a prophet of God among you,
I make myself known to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.
But I don’t do it that way with my servant Moses;
he has the run of my entire house;
I speak to him intimately, in person,
in plain talk without riddles:
He ponders the very form of God.
So why did you show no reverence or respect
in speaking against my servant, against Moses?
9 The anger of God blazed out against them. And then he left.
10 When the Cloud moved off from the Tent, oh! Miriam had turned leprous, her skin like snow. Aaron took one look at Miriam—a leper!
11-12 He said to Moses, “Please, my master, please don’t come down so hard on us for this foolish and thoughtless sin. Please don’t make her like a stillborn baby coming out of its mother’s womb with half its body decomposed.”
13 And Moses prayed to God:
Please, God, heal her,
please heal her.
14-16 God answered Moses, “If her father had spat in her face, wouldn’t she be ostracized for seven days? Quarantine her outside the camp for seven days. Then she can be readmitted to the camp.” So Miriam was in quarantine outside the camp for seven days. The people didn’t march on until she was readmitted. Only then did the people march from Hazeroth and set up camp in the Wilderness of Paran.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Read: Jonah 2:1–10
At the Bottom of the Sea
Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish.
He prayed:
“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed to God.
He answered me.
From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’
You heard my cry.
You threw me into ocean’s depths,
into a watery grave,
With ocean waves, ocean breakers
crashing over me.
I said, ‘I’ve been thrown away,
thrown out, out of your sight.
I’ll never again lay eyes
on your Holy Temple.’
Ocean gripped me by the throat.
The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight.
My head was all tangled in seaweed
at the bottom of the sea where the mountains take root.
I was as far down as a body can go,
and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever—
Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive,
O God, my God!
When my life was slipping away,
I remembered God,
And my prayer got through to you,
made it all the way to your Holy Temple.
Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds,
walk away from their only true love.
But I’m worshiping you, God,
calling out in thanksgiving!
And I’ll do what I promised I’d do!
Salvation belongs to God!”
10 Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.
INSIGHT
The story of Jonah is a story of the unexpected. The only character in the story who doesn’t obey God is the one the reader would expect to be obedient, the one who told the sailors, “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9). In contrast to the fugitive prophet, the pagan sailors turn to God (v. 16); the fish did as the Lord commanded (2:10); the Ninevites (a blood-thirsty and pagan people) repented (3:5–10). But the unexpected doesn’t stop there. God goes to great lengths to teach Jonah who He is. Rather than punish the disobedient prophet who is angry at God’s mercy, God invites Jonah (and us) to contemplate the depths of His love and mercy.
When have you experienced the love and mercy of God? - J.R. Hudberg
Up a Tree
By Elisa Morgan
My mother discovered my kitten Velvet atop the kitchen counter,
devouring homemade bread. With a huff of frustration, she scooted her
out the door. Hours later, we searched our yard for the missing cat
without success. A faint meow whistled on the wind, and I looked up to
the peak of a poplar tree where a black smudge tilted a branch.
In
her haste to flee my mother’s frustration over her behavior, Velvet
chose a more precarious predicament. Is it possible that we sometimes do
something similar—running from our errors and putting ourselves in
danger? And even then God comes to our rescue.
Oh the heights—and the depths—God goes to in rescuing us from our disobedience with His redeeming love! Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
The prophet Jonah fled in disobedience from God’s call to preach to Nineveh, and was swallowed up by a great fish. “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: ‘In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me’ ” (Jonah 2:1–2). God heard Jonah’s plea and, “commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (v. 10). Then God gave Jonah another chance (3:1).
After exhausting our efforts to woo Velvet down, we summoned the local fire department. With the longest ladder fully extended, a kind man climbed high, plucked my kitten from her perch, and returned to place her safely in my arms.
Dear God, how we need Your rescue today!
Jesus’s death on the cross rescued us from our sins.
In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. Jonah 2:2
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
The Explanation For Our Difficulties
…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21
If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.
God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Banging The Pan - #8182
Some people really have the gift of sleeping. One of our young friends, Michael, he stayed with us for several months. Oh, does he have the gift of sleeping, but not the gift of waking up. No. It actually became my job to wake him up every morning to get to work. Did somebody say, "Mission Impossible"? It seemed like no matter what I tried, I could not get him to wake up-and if I could, I couldn't get him to stay awake. No alarm clock we tried could do the job, no calling his name, no calling him very loudly, no shaking him. Somehow he always managed to stay asleep or go back to sleep...well, until the pan. Yeah, one morning I marched upstairs, into his room, and right over his head, I banged a metal pan with a metal spoon with everything I had. Yeah! I mean, the neighbor down the street woke up! Michael woke up, got up and stayed up!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Banging The Pan."
Now, I'm not necessarily recommending that as a method of waking people up. But I do know this, when someone needs to wake up, you do whatever it takes to get the job done. And you know what? God does whatever it takes to get the job done. Even if He has to resort to a "banging pan."
Our word for today from the Word of God is about those times when God's people have fallen asleep and need to wake up, and times when we haven't responded to His gentle wakeup calls-like Bible verses, sermons, advice, or the Holy Spirit's conviction. But, like me with our friend Michael, God will not leave you sleeping. He will step up the pressure. Some of the trouble you're dealing with right now might just be God's banging pan.
Our word for today from the Word of God is from 2 Chronicles 7:13. It's followed by that very familiar formula for revival, 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Man, we'd all love to have that kind of power and healing poured out on our lives from heaven wouldn't we?
But what gets God's people to the point where they wake up spiritually? Well, let's go back a verse, to verse 13. God says, "When I shut up the heavens so there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves...." So, God sends or allows major disruptions, major stresses, not to punish us, but to wake us up...to get our attention! To give us what we need and He's wanted to give.
God might be banging His pan loudly right now to wake you up, or to wake up your church, or your ministry, or your family. What's God trying to wake you up to? Well, maybe to your growing tolerance for some sin in your life, or maybe He's trying to wake you up to that neglect of what really matters...you just not been giving attention to the stuff that really counts. Maybe your family. Maybe He's trying to wake you up to some messed up priorities. Or God might be trying to wake you up to your complacency about the lost people around you, the dying people around you. Or maybe He's trying to get your attention to deal with that area of pride, or compromise, or that motive or attitude that's out of line.
When we need to wake up-and we don't respond to God's gentle approaches, well He brings out something heavier, something so "un-ignorable" that will finally get our attention.
There's only one way to silence God's "banging pan." Wake up!