Max Lucado Daily: YOU WERE MADE FOR THE PART - June 15, 2018
Listen to the way God described the builder, Bezalel, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, intelligence and skill in all kinds of crafts…” (Exodus 31:3-5). Can you hear the pleasure in God’s voice?
When you do the most what you do the best, you pop the pride buttons on the vest of God. In the movie, Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell defended his devotion to running by telling his sister, “God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.” When do you feel God’s pleasure? When do you look up into the heavens and say, “I was made to do this?” When it comes to being you, you were made for the part. So speak your lines with confidence!
Read more Cure for the Common Life
Numbers 30
Vows
1-2 Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the People of Israel: “This is what God commands: When a man makes a vow to God or binds himself by an oath to do something, he must not break his word; he must do exactly what he has said.
3-5 “When a woman makes a vow to God and binds herself by a pledge as a young girl still living in her father’s house, and her father hears of her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then she has to make good on all her vows and pledges. But if her father holds her back when he hears of what she has done, none of her vows and pledges are valid. God will release her since her father held her back.
6-8 “If she marries after she makes a vow or has made some rash promise or pledge, and her husband hears of it but says nothing to her, then she has to make good on whatever she vowed or pledged. But if her husband intervenes when he hears of it, he cancels the vow or rash promise that binds her. And God will release her.
9 “Any vow or pledge taken by a widow or divorced woman is binding on her.
10-15 “When a woman who is living with her husband makes a vow or takes a pledge under oath and her husband hears about it but says nothing and doesn’t say she can’t do it, then all her vows and pledges are valid. But if her husband cancels them when he hears about them, then none of the vows and pledges that she made are binding. Her husband has canceled them and God will release her. Any vow and pledge that she makes that may be to her detriment can be either affirmed or annulled by her husband. But if her husband is silent and doesn’t speak up day after day, he confirms her vows and pledges—she has to make good on them. By saying nothing to her when he hears of them, he binds her to them. If, however, he cancels them sometime after he hears of them, he takes her guilt on himself.”
16 These are the rules that God gave Moses regarding conduct between a man and his wife and between a father and his young daughter who is still living at home.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, June 15, 2018
Read: Jeremiah 31:1–6
“And when that happens”—God’s Decree—
“it will be plain as the sun at high noon:
I’ll be the God of every man, woman, and child in Israel
and they shall be my very own people.”
2-6 This is the way God put it:
“They found grace out in the desert,
these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest,
met God out looking for them!”
God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will.
Expect love, love, and more love!
And so now I’ll start over with you and build you up again,
dear virgin Israel.
You’ll resume your singing,
grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
You’ll go back to your old work of planting vineyards
on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit—
oh, how you’ll enjoy those harvests!
The time’s coming when watchmen will call out
from the hilltops of Ephraim:
‘On your feet! Let’s go to Zion,
go to meet our God!’”
INSIGHT
Much of the book of Jeremiah deals with the prophet’s anguished appeal for God’s people to turn back to Him. Those pleas were ignored, making judgment inevitable. But God’s love is relentless, and in chapters 30–31 Jeremiah gives hope to the remnant who would live through the coming invasion. “The people who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness,” God said (31:2). This “favor” would show up in ways the scattered survivors likely thought no longer possible. What the invading horde destroyed, God would rebuild, causing the people to “take up [their] timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful” (v. 4). Their farmers would plant fruitful vineyards (v. 5). No longer would watchmen cry out in warning, but would instead call the people to Zion (Jerusalem) for worship (v. 6).
When we begin to understand the scope of God’s love, we can accept His correction and learn from it. As we embrace His everlasting love, we find that God’s discipline is for our good and is proof that we are His children (see Hebrews 12:5–7).
Do you see God as our gentle and loving heavenly Father? In what ways have you sensed His loving correction? - Tim Gustafson
“Lovable!”
By Adam Holz
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. Jeremiah 31:3
“Lovable!”
That exclamation came from my daughter as she got ready one morning. I didn’t know what she meant. Then she tapped her shirt, a hand-me-down from a cousin. Across the front was that word: “Lovable.” I gave her a big hug, and she smiled with pure joy. “You are lovable!” I echoed. Her smile grew even bigger, if that was possible, as she skipped away, repeating the word over and over again.
I’m hardly a perfect father. But that moment was perfect. In that spontaneous, beautiful interaction, I glimpsed in my girl’s radiant face what receiving unconditional love looked like: It was a portrait of delight. She knew the word on her shirt corresponded completely with how her daddy felt about her.
How many of us know in our hearts that we are loved by a Father whose affection for us is limitless? Sometimes we struggle with this truth. The Israelites did. They wondered if their trials meant God no longer loved them. But in Jeremiah 31:3, the prophet reminds them of what God said in the past: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” We too long for such unconditional love. Yet the wounds, disappointments, and mistakes we experience can make us feel anything but lovable. But God opens His arms—the arms of a perfect Father—and invites us to experience and rest in His love.
Lord, hard things in our lives can tempt us to believe we are unlovable. But You say otherwise. Please help us to receive the life-transforming gift of Your everlasting love for us.
No one loves us like our Father.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, June 15, 2018
Get Moving! (2)
Also…add to your faith… —2 Peter 1:5
In the matter of drudgery. Peter said in this passage that we have become “partakers of the divine nature” and that we should now be “giving all diligence,” concentrating on forming godly habits (2 Peter 1:4-5). We are to “add” to our lives all that character means. No one is born either naturally or supernaturally with character; it must be developed. Nor are we born with habits— we have to form godly habits on the basis of the new life God has placed within us. We are not meant to be seen as God’s perfect, bright-shining examples, but to be seen as the everyday essence of ordinary life exhibiting the miracle of His grace. Drudgery is the test of genuine character. The greatest hindrance in our spiritual life is that we will only look for big things to do. Yet, “Jesus…took a towel and…began to wash the disciples’ feet…” (John 13:3-5).
We all have those times when there are no flashes of light and no apparent thrill to life, where we experience nothing but the daily routine with its common everyday tasks. The routine of life is actually God’s way of saving us between our times of great inspiration which come from Him. Don’t always expect God to give you His thrilling moments, but learn to live in those common times of the drudgery of life by the power of God.
It is difficult for us to do the “adding” that Peter mentioned here. We say we do not expect God to take us to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and yet we act as if we do! I must realize that my obedience even in the smallest detail of life has all of the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I will do my duty, not for duty’s sake but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience all of the magnificent grace of God is mine through the glorious atonement by the Cross of Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, June 15, 2018
Father Power - #8200
It was Father's Day, and my friend Dave and I were making the most of it. Our families were spending the day together and Dave and I knew what our job was on Father's Day-loafing and making sure everyone understood our needs. And sometimes someone even paid attention to us for a second. Well, all of us were sitting at the picnic table in the yard and I was explaining what the day's activities were going to be and why Dave and I were the ones making the plans. I said, "It's Father's Day." To which his son mumbled this interesting comment, "At our house, every day is Father's Day." Yeah! Well, you know what? That got me thinking.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Father Power."
Actually, every day is "Father's Day" in many families and that's not necessarily a good thing. The Bible makes it clear that dad is the thermostat of the family; the one who basically sets the temperature that everyone else responds to. So dad has tremendous power to make his family feel loved, or small, or confident, or tense, relaxed, or frustrated. In that sense, every day is Father's Day, where the father has a lot to say about what kind of day it is.
It's actually a father's power to frustrate that is addressed in our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 3:21. Let's double back to verse 17 which is sort of the keynote for the words that follow about each family member's role. Colossians 3:17 says, "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus." What does that mean in real life if you're a father? God answers that. He says, "Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged." Apparently, the "dad-sin" seems to be to embitter a child - to discourage a child. Now, how does that happen? It's not intended, but there's such a desire to please your father that he can really crush your spirit if that power is not exercised gently. If you're a dad, you don't want to commit the dad-sin. I can think of four ways that we fathers do embitter and frustrate and discourage our children.
First, our expectations. See, expectations are a problem if we usually major on what our child needs to improve instead of on what he or she is doing right. It feels like they can never be good enough for us. Secondly, there's our neglect. We're just not there to hear about their day, to watch them do what they do, to discipline them consistently.
Thirdly, we fathers can frustrate our child with our insensitivity. Sometimes, we just run into their life briefly, drop a bomb on them without ever finding out the feelings beneath their behavior. And then we hurt our child with our inflexibility. If you're never able to be wrong, to forgive, to ask for forgiveness, you don't gain respect. You lose it, and eventually you may lose your son or daughter in the process.
Whether or not it's the official Father's Day, I guarantee you every day is another important Father's Day in the life of your precious son or your daughter; another day when how you make them feel will greatly determine how they live. Take a look at that guy in the mirror. Is he building a healthy child or a wounded child?
Many a man's looked in the mirror, and when he considered the kind of a father he was, he's seen a man he didn't want to be. But he didn't know how to change. It's been in a moment like that that men have claimed the promise of the Word of God. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, a new life has begun" (2 Corinthians 5:17). It could be that you're a man today; very aware that you are not able to be what your family needs you to be. That is when a man reaches out and finally finds his Savior, who died on the cross for every sin he's ever committed - every hurt he's ever inflicted.
Listen, this could be your day to say, "Jesus, I'm yours." And I'd love to help you do that if you get to our website. Right there is the information you need to get this done. It's ANewStory.com.
Because in terms of making a child feel loved, important, and competent, every day is Father's Day.
