Max Lucado Daily: PRAISE FROM GOD
The Bible says God will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and He will expose the motives of the heart. “At that time each will receive their praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5). On the last day, God will walk you through your life day by day, moment by moment, issuing commendation after commendation. You greeted the new student in your class. Fine job. You forgave your brother, encouraged your neighbor. . .I’m so proud of you.
The Bible says, “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them” (Hebrews 6:10). Our just God will recognize faithful stewardship. The same pen that records our impure thoughts makes notes of our pure ones. And guess who’ll be waiting for you at the finish line? Jesus Christ! This is His promise, and because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 23
Joshua’s Charge
A long time later, after God had given Israel rest from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was a venerable old man, Joshua called all Israel together—elders, chiefs, judges, and officers. Then he spoke to them:
2-3 “I’m an old man. I’ve lived a long time. You have seen everything that God has done to these nations because of you. He did it because he’s God, your God. He fought for you.
4-5 “Stay alert: I have assigned to you by lot these nations that remain as an inheritance to your tribes—these in addition to the nations I have already cut down—from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. God, your God, will drive them out of your path until there’s nothing left of them and you’ll take over their land just as God, your God, promised you.
6-8 “Now, stay strong and steady. Obediently do everything written in the Book of The Revelation of Moses—don’t miss a detail. Don’t get mixed up with the nations that are still around. Don’t so much as speak the names of their gods or swear by them. And by all means don’t worship or pray to them. Hold tight to God, your God, just as you’ve done up to now.
9-10 “God has driven out superpower nations before you. And up to now, no one has been able to stand up to you. Think of it—one of you, single-handedly, putting a thousand on the run! Because God is God, your God. Because he fights for you, just as he promised you.
11-13 “Now, vigilantly guard your souls: Love God, your God. Because if you wander off and start taking up with these remaining nations still among you (intermarry, say, and have other dealings with them), know for certain that God, your God, will not get rid of these nations for you. They’ll be nothing but trouble to you—horsewhips on your backs and sand in your eyes—until you’re the ones who will be driven out of this good land that God, your God, has given you.
14 “As you can see, I’m about to go the way we all end up going. Know this with all your heart, with everything in you, that not one detail has failed of all the good things God, your God, promised you. It has all happened. Nothing’s left undone—not so much as a word.
15-16 “But just as sure as everything good that God, your God, has promised has come true, so also God will bring to pass every bad thing until there’s nothing left of you in this good land that God has given you. If you leave the path of the Covenant of God, your God, that he commanded you, go off and serve and worship other gods, God’s anger will blaze out against you. In no time at all there’ll be nothing left of you, no sign that you’ve ever been in this good land he gave you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Read: Galatians 6:1–10
Bear One Another's Burdens
Brothers,[a] if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Footnotes:
Galatians 6:1 Or Brothers and sisters; also verse 18
INSIGHT
Sometimes we can be tempted to take pride in our own good deeds. Unfortunately, this attitude may result in our looking down on the shortcomings of others. Instead, Paul says that believers empowered by the Spirit are to restore those caught up in a sin gently. By helping people deal with their sins, we’re fulfilling the law of Christ.
This helps us understand what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). Helping others grow in godliness is the essence of loving them.
How can you love your neighbor today? - J.R. Hudberg
When We’re Weary
By Alyson Kieda
Let us not become weary in doing good. Galatians 6:9
Sometimes trying to do the right thing can be exhausting. We may wonder, Do my well-intentioned words and actions make any difference at all? I wondered this recently when I sent a prayerfully thought-out email meant to encourage a friend, only to have it met with an angry response. My immediate reaction was a mixture of hurt and anger. How could I be so misunderstood?
Before I responded out of anger, I remembered that we won’t always see the results (or the results we desire) when we tell someone about how Jesus loves them. When we do good things for others hoping to draw them to Him, they may spurn us. Our gentle efforts to prompt someone to right action may be ignored.
Galatians 6 is a good place to turn when we’re discouraged by someone’s response to our sincere efforts. Here the apostle Paul encourages us to consider our motives—to “test our actions”—for what we say and do (vv. 1–4). When we have done so, he encourages us to persevere: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people” (vv. 9–10).
God wants us to continue living for Him, which includes praying for and telling others about Him—“doing good.” He will see to the results.
Dear God, thank You for the encouragement we receive from Your Word. Help us to persevere in doing good.
We can leave the results of our lives in God’s hands.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 27, 2018
The “Go” of Renunciation
…someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." —Luke 9:57
Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, “for He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). We would have said, “I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!” Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of “what was in man.” If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.
Luke 9:58. These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, “…the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Luke 9:59. This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.
Luke 9:61. The person who says, “Lord, I will follow You, but…,” is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Narrow Banks - #8274
If you want to get into Manhattan from New Jersey, you have several choices. You can take a long bridge, one of two long tunnels, a ferry trip, or a long un-recommended swim. The Hudson River is really pretty wide when it reaches Manhattan, but it's not very powerful. If you could see the Hudson River near its headwaters in upstate New York, man, it's roaring along with a really strong current. Upstate its banks are confined and the force is greater. By the time it reaches Manhattan, it's not so powerful. The Hudson's so spread out that its power seems kind of weak by comparison. I know people like that.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Narrow Banks."
Just like the Hudson River, we tend to get spread over too many commitments, don't you think? And sometimes we don't have much power in any of them. We tend to accumulate commitments instead of making choices. We add new arenas without removing any old ones. Homework competes with extracurricular commitments, household responsibilities, youth meetings, friends. A business person says "yes" until his or her résumé looks impressive, but their contributions in each area are kind of insignificant. An overcommitted woman needs a valet just to manage all her hats: wife, mother, committee worker, volunteer, career person, creator, entertainer. By taking on more than we can possibly do well, we live in a direct violation of God's command to "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life" (1 Thessalonians 4:11).
I battle all those pressures, just like you probably do. And the difference I make in each arena is in direct proportion to my use of that most powerful two-letter word - "No." It was a word Jesus knew how to say.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Luke 4:40 - "When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and...He healed them. At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and they tried to keep him from leaving them." Time out! Your circumstances probably are different from that of Jesus', but maybe you can relate to that feeling of being tugged on from all directions. The Bible goes on to say, "But he said," - get this now - "'I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.'" And the Bible says He left and did that.
There were still plenty of people left to heal, but Jesus said, "No." He had settled the "I musts" of His life. In this case, preaching to the other towns. Having settled His non-negotiable "yes's," He could say "no" to anything that would compromise them – no matter how worthy it was.
God may be asking you to take a time-out like Jesus did so often and sort out all those demands. He wants you to settle a handful of non-negotiables that no one can have – your "musts." And then make all your choices revolve around those non-negotiables because you want to stay powerful in the commitments you've made. Keep your life in narrow banks!
When you're facing choices like these, it helps to ask yourself some questions, "Could someone else do this? Is this something God has uniquely qualified me for? Is this something God has definitely called me to do? Is it something others could do?" Remember, it's better to make a big mark in a few places (like at home, for example) than a little mark in a lot of places.
That powerful two-letter word "no" gives you the blessed freedom to enjoy the commitments you've made and the concentrated power of a river in narrow banks.
