Max Lucado Daily: RESIST THE URGE TO LABEL YOUR CHILDREN
At the age of two, master pianist Van Cliburn played a song on the piano while listening to teaching in the adjacent room. His mother noticed his skill and began giving him daily piano lessons. The little kid from Kilgore, Texas, won the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. Why? In part because a parent noticed an aptitude and helped a child develop it.
What gives your child satisfaction and pleasure? Of course, what thrills one person bothers another. The apostle Peter liked to keep the boat steady while the apostle Paul was prone to rock it. So, resist the urge to label before you study. Attend carefully to the unique childhood of your child. What story do you read in your children? Uncommon are the parents who attempt to learn—and are blessed by their children.
Read more Cure for the Common Life
Deuteronomy 6
This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you’re about to cross into to possess. This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.
3 Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told so that you’ll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.
4 Attention, Israel!
God, our God! God the one and only!
5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!
6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.
10-12 When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you’re going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn’t build, well-furnished houses you didn’t buy, come upon wells you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn’t plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don’t forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.
13-19 Deeply respect God, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only. Don’t fool around with other gods, the gods of your neighbors, because God, your God, who is alive among you is a jealous God. Don’t provoke him, igniting his hot anger that would burn you right off the face of the Earth. Don’t push God, your God, to the wall as you did that day at Massah, the Testing-Place. Carefully keep the commands of God, your God, all the requirements and regulations he gave you. Do what is right; do what is good in God’s sight so you’ll live a good life and be able to march in and take this pleasant land that God so solemnly promised through your ancestors, throwing out your enemies left and right—exactly as God said.
20-24 The next time your child asks you, “What do these requirements and regulations and rules that God, our God, has commanded mean?” tell your child, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God powerfully intervened and got us out of that country. We stood there and watched as God delivered miracle-signs, great wonders, and evil-visitations on Egypt, on Pharaoh and his household. He pulled us out of there so he could bring us here and give us the land he so solemnly promised to our ancestors. That’s why God commanded us to follow all these rules, so that we would live reverently before God, our God, as he gives us this good life, keeping us alive for a long time to come.
25 “It will be a set-right and put-together life for us if we make sure that we do this entire commandment in the Presence of God, our God, just as he commanded us to do.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Read: Isaiah 58:6–12
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed[a] go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.
Footnotes:
Isaiah 58:6 Or bruised
INSIGHT
Am I my brother’s keeper? We might wonder something similar when we hear Isaiah urging his people to reach out to a world of hurting people. But another story is working in the background. God’s people were trying to avoid responsibility for the wrongs they were doing to their own flesh and blood (Isaiah 58:7).
Can you think of anything you are doing, or not doing, to those around you that is making their life difficult? Can you think of ways to unselfishly serve them? - Mart DeHaan
Unselfish Service
By Randy Kilgore
If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness. Isaiah 58:10
A small collection of people stood together, dwarfed by the size of the huge tree lying on the lawn. An elderly woman leaned on her cane and described watching the previous night’s windstorm as it blew down “our majestic old elm tree. Worst of all,” she continued, voice cracking with emotion, “it destroyed our lovely stone wall too. My husband built that wall when we were first married. He loved that wall. I loved that wall! Now it’s gone; just like him.”
Next morning, as she peeked out at the tree company workers cleaning up the downed tree; a big smile spread across her face. In between the branches she could just make out two adults and the boy who mowed her lawn carefully measuring and rebuilding her beloved stone wall!
The prophet Isaiah describes the kind of service God favors: acts that lift the hearts of those around us, like the wall repairers did for the elderly woman. This passage teaches that God values unselfish service to others over empty spiritual rituals. In fact, God exercises a two-way blessing on the selfless service of His children. First, God uses our willing acts of service to aid the oppressed and needy (Isaiah 58:7–10). Then God honors those engaged in such service by building or rebuilding our reputations as powerful positive forces in His kingdom (vv. 11–12). What service will you offer this day?
Thank You, Father, for the acts of others You use to lift us up, and for calling us to do the same.
Selfless service to others brings honor to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, July 26, 2018
The Way to Purity
Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart….For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man… —Matthew 15:18-20
Initially we trust in our ignorance, calling it innocence, and next we trust our innocence, calling it purity. Then when we hear these strong statements from our Lord, we shrink back, saying, “But I never felt any of those awful things in my heart.” We resent what He reveals. Either Jesus Christ is the supreme authority on the human heart, or He is not worth paying any attention to. Am I prepared to trust the penetration of His Word into my heart, or would I prefer to trust my own “innocent ignorance”? If I will take an honest look at myself, becoming fully aware of my so-called innocence and putting it to the test, I am very likely to have a rude awakening that what Jesus Christ said is true, and I will be appalled at the possibilities of the evil and the wrong within me. But as long as I remain under the false security of my own “innocence,” I am living in a fool’s paradise. If I have never been an openly rude and abusive person, the only reason is my own cowardice coupled with the sense of protection I receive from living a civilized life. But when I am open and completely exposed before God, I find that Jesus Christ is right in His diagnosis of me.
The only thing that truly provides protection is the redemption of Jesus Christ. If I will simply hand myself over to Him, I will never have to experience the terrible possibilities that lie within my heart. Purity is something far too deep for me to arrive at naturally. But when the Holy Spirit comes into me, He brings into the center of my personal life the very Spirit that was exhibited in the life of Jesus Christ, namely, the Holy Spirit, which is absolute unblemished purity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 26, 2018
The Auditor's Review - #8229
He's only in our office for a few days each year, but we think about him a lot. He's our auditor-the man who comes to check up on us financially after each fiscal year. It's important that a ministry have an annual audit we think. We're committed to always taking the high road and we try to be stewards of God's money that has been sent through His people. Everything needs to be handled by the highest possible standards. Now, the auditor will publish his statement after his review, and if he finds any weaknesses, he publishes those. I'm really thankful that we continue to get a good clean audit, but that's because we're thinking about the auditor all year long. I mean, here we are trying to decide the best way to record or document something. We always ask, "Well, what does the auditor want?" See, that helps you make right choices. You keep in mind that accounting that you're going to have to give.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Auditor's Review."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 4:13. It says, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." Okay, there's an audit coming. We must give account, and it's different from a human auditor's review. The human auditor comes in and randomly selects transactions to see how they were handled. Jesus' audit is not selective. It says everything is uncovered and laid bare with Him.
Your human auditors might never find that questionable or wrong thing in your life. Your mate may never know, your kids may never know, your parents may never find out. You may be able to impress all the auditors at church, at work, your friends, but their audit is not the one that matters anyway. They're not your God. They don't determine your eternal rewards. They don't determine heaven's consequences or discipline.
It's God's audit you need to be planning for and living for. He knows what you're doing financially, sexually, verbally. He hears every conversation, including the abusive talk, the critical talk, the dirty talk, the lies, the backstabbing. Are you going to be called into account for what He's seen, what He's heard you do. And God knows why you do what you do. First Corinthians 4:5 says, "He will expose the motives in men's hearts."
See, the all-knowing auditor will confront you with the pride, and the bitterness, the jealousy, the selfish ambition. Even good things will be canceled out because they were done for the wrong reasons. He knows what you're doing. He knows why you're doing it.
Thankfully, the auditor's review is wonderful news for some people. For He's going to richly reward those who have lived with love and integrity and purity. Maybe nobody else will notice. Maybe your human auditors don't even appreciate it much. Maybe no one even knows the good things you've done, but the auditor who gives eternal rewards; He's noticing it all. We can't see our organization's human auditor most of the time, but we still make a thousand little daily decisions in light of his upcoming review. Should you and I do any less for the auditor whose audit matters forever?
You can count on it. The books of your life will be opened and you will have to give account. The auditor will play no favorites. He will not miss a single transaction. It only makes sense to always live aware of His presence, always aware of his standards, always measuring by His measuring, and always seeking to please the Savior whose audit affects your eternity.