Max Lucado Daily: HEIRS OF THE PROMISE
Heroes in the Bible came from all walks of life—rulers, servants, teachers, doctors—male, female, single, and married. Yet one common denominator united them. They built their lives on the promises of God. Noah believed in rain before rain was a word. Joshua led two million people into enemy territory. One writer went so far as to call such saints “heirs of the promise” (Hebrews 6:17).
As God prepared the Israelites to face a new land, he made a promise to them, “Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you” (Exodus 34:10). God’s promises are unbreakable. Our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 4:1-30
Tested by the Devil
Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.
3 The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.”
4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.”
5-7 For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.”
8 Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”
9-11 For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?”
12 “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’”
13 That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.
To Set the Burdened Free
14-15 Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure.
16-21 He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,
God’s Spirit is on me;
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”
22 All who were there, watching and listening, were surprised at how well he spoke. But they also said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son, the one we’ve known since he was a youngster?”
23-27 He answered, “I suppose you’re going to quote the proverb, ‘Doctor, go heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we heard you did in Capernaum.’ Well, let me tell you something: No prophet is ever welcomed in his hometown. Isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during that three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon? And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian.”
28-30 That set everyone in the meeting place seething with anger. They threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, but he gave them the slip and was on his way.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, August 01, 2018
Read: Psalm 145:8–21
The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the children of man your[a] mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
[The Lord is faithful in all his words
and kind in all his works.][b]
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
20 The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
Footnotes:
Psalm 145:12 Hebrew his; also next line
Psalm 145:13 These two lines are supplied by one Hebrew manuscript, Septuagint, Syriac (compare Dead Sea Scroll)
INSIGHT
The book of Psalms, also referred to as the Hebrew Hymnbook, is a collection of 150 songs that were sung by God’s people at various times as part of their worship. Psalm 145 is the last psalm in the final collection of songs penned by David (Psalms 138–145). David proclaims God as the Sovereign King (vv. 1–3, 10–13), exalting His glorious majesty (v. 5) and generous benevolence (v. 7) to all His creation. God’s greatness and goodness is manifested in His mighty acts, wonderful and awesome works, and great deeds (vv. 4–6).
How have you experienced God’s enduring love?
For more about the Psalms, check out our free online course at christianuniversity.org/OT222. - K. T. Sim
Love Without Limits
By David C. McCasland
The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. Psalm 145:9
A wise friend advised me to avoid using the words “you always” or “you never” in an argument—especially with my family. How easy it is to criticize others around us and to feel unloving toward those we love. But there is never any variation in God’s enduring love for us all.
Psalm 145 overflows with the word all. “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” (v. 9). “The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down” (vv. 13–14). “The Lord watches over all who love him” (v. 20).
A dozen times in this psalm we are reminded that God’s love is without limit and favoritism. And the New Testament reveals that the greatest expression of it is seen in Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Psalm 145 declares that “the Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them” (vv. 18–19).
God’s love for us always endures, and it never fails!
Father in heaven, we are awed by Your love for us that never changes, never fails, and never ends. We praise You for demonstrating Your limitless love for us through Jesus our Savior and Lord.
There is never any variation in God’s enduring love for us all.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 01, 2018
Learning About His Ways
When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples…He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. —Matthew 11:1
He comes where He commands us to leave. If you stayed home when God told you to go because you were so concerned about your own people there, then you actually robbed them of the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself. When you obeyed and left all the consequences to God, the Lord went into your city to teach, but as long as you were disobedient, you blocked His way. Watch where you begin to debate with Him and put what you call your duty into competition with His commands. If you say, “I know that He told me to go, but my duty is here,” it simply means that you do not believe that Jesus means what He says.
He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. “Master…let us make three tabernacles…” (Luke 9:33).
Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God’s role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us regarding His Son, and He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. When we become certain that God is going to work in a particular way, He will never work in that way again.
He works where He sends us to wait. “…tarry…until…” (Luke 24:49). “Wait on the Lord” and He will work (Psalm 37:34). But don’t wait sulking spiritually and feeling sorry for yourself, just because you can’t see one inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual fits of emotion to “wait patiently for Him”? (Psalm 37:7). Waiting is not sitting with folded hands doing nothing, but it is learning to do what we are told.
These are some of the facets of His ways that we rarely recognize.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 01, 2018
Love that Will Not Let You Go - #8233
I just don't understand why this beautiful girl at college didn't have love at first sight. I mean, when she met me, you know? I mean, it wasn't even love at second sight, or tenth sight. We met at college, and it wasn't as if she was holed up in her room studying all the time. She was very active socially-especially in dating some of the most sought-after guys on campus. I knew getting her wasn't going to be easy. So I carefully planned my comings and goings so I would be places that I thought she would be. Don't you dare call it stalking - no. I thought about things I could say that might impress her, and I ultimately let her know that I had more than a casual friendship in my mind. There were challenges, but there was no way I was going to lose this girl. I loved her, I relentlessly pursued her, and I got her! And what a wonderful life it's been together!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love that Will Not Let You Go."
I have loved someone enough to pursue her with everything I had. There's someone who loves you like that whether or not you know it. In fact, He's been pursuing you for years, determined to give you every chance to begin a personal relationship with Him. And while you've been giving yourself to other pursuits, He's just been relentlessly pursuing you. But one day your time to experience His love will run out. So He's pursuing you one more time today.
I'm talking about Jesus Christ. In our word for today from the Word of God, there's a memorable picture of where you are spiritually and where Jesus is in relation to you. The Bible describes our spiritual condition this way: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). That's hard to argue with. When you look at what the Bible says about how we're supposed to live and then you compare your life to God's 100% holy standard, there's no doubt we're His lost sheep-lost because we've gotten away from Him.
Now here's that beautiful picture from Luke 15, beginning with verse 4: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'" There it is-Jesus' loving pursuit of one person that He does not want to lose-Jesus' loving pursuit of you.
In the words of the Bible, "God is not willing that one should perish." You could put your name there. "God is not willing that (There's your name.) should perish." That "perish" refers to the death penalty, the eternal separation from God that's our destiny because of our sin. But Jesus stepped in and He went to the cross to absorb all the guilt and all the hell of all the wrong things you and I have ever done, and then He came back from the grave so He could give you eternal life. He died so you don't have to. He pursued you all the way to a cross, and today He's still pursuing you right to the place where you are right now. That tug you might be feeling inside-that's Him drawing you to Him. And you have to come when He's drawing you.
He's preserved your life so you wouldn't die without Him. He's brought people into your life so you could find out about Him. He's brought things into your life that would show you how much you need someone beyond yourself; how much you need Him. And now you have this one guaranteed opportunity to open up to the love that you were made for. Your relationship with Him begins the moment you give yourself to this Man who gave His life for you.
You can tell Him right where you are, "Jesus, I believe when you died on that cross you were paying for my sin. And I believe you're alive, and I want you to live in me. Right now, Jesus, beginning now I pin all my hopes on you. I'm yours." Boy, if that's where you're at and you finally want to experience His love for yourself, go to our website It's there for you to help you be sure you belong to Jesus Christ as of this day. That website is ANewStory.com.
Today the awesome love of Jesus Christ is still within your reach. He's come so far to find you. Don't miss Him.