Max Lucado Daily: A KEY QUESTION
How far do you want God to go in getting your attention? Don’t answer too quickly. Give it some thought. God does what it takes to get our attention. Isn’t that the message of the Bible? The relentless pursuit of God. God is as creative as he is relentless. The same hand that set the children of Israel free from Egypt also sent them captive to Babylon. Both kind and stern. Faithfully firm. Patiently urgent. Eagerly tolerant. Softly shouting. Gentle thunder.
God will whisper. He will shout. He will touch and tug. He will take away our burdens; he’ll even take away our blessings. His goal is not to make you happy. His goal is to make you HIS. If there are a thousand steps between us and him, he’ll take all but one. But he will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours!
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Luke 16
The Story of the Crooked Manager
16 1-2 Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’
3-4 “The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’
5 “Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’
“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’
7 “To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’
“He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’
“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’
8-9 “Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”
God Sees Behind Appearances
10-13 Jesus went on to make these comments:
If you’re honest in small things,
you’ll be honest in big things;
If you’re a crook in small things,
you’ll be a crook in big things.
If you’re not honest in small jobs,
who will put you in charge of the store?
No worker can serve two bosses:
He’ll either hate the first and love the second
Or adore the first and despise the second.
You can’t serve both God and the Bank.
14-18 When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: “You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what’s behind the appearance.
What society sees and calls monumental,
God sees through and calls monstrous.
God’s Law and the Prophets climaxed in John;
Now it’s all kingdom of God—the glad news
and compelling invitation to every man and woman.
The sky will disintegrate and the earth dissolve
before a single letter of God’s Law wears out.
Using the legalities of divorce
as a cover for lust is adultery;
Using the legalities of marriage
as a cover for lust is adultery.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19-21 “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22-24 “Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’
25-26 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’
27-28 “The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’
30 “‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’
31 “Abraham replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Read: Jeremiah 8:8–15
“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”[a]
14 Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
Footnotes:
Jeremiah 8:13 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
INSIGHT
Jeremiah delivers a devastating message of coming punishment to the people of Judah. God’s judgment of sin includes loss of spouse and property (Jeremiah 8:10), failed crops (v. 13), and overwhelming terror (v. 15). Why such a devastating punishment? They have mishandled the law of the Lord (v. 8). Jeremiah continues by saying that they have no wisdom since they have rejected the word of the Lord (v. 9). Scripture is not something to be treated lightly. In the Bible God reveals Himself and His plan for humanity’s redemption. It’s a story to be treated with the utmost respect. - J.R. Hudberg
Where Is Peace?
By Tim Gustafson
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1
“Do you still hope for peace?” a journalist asked Bob Dylan in 1984.
“There is not going to be any peace,” Dylan replied. His response drew criticism, yet there’s no denying that peace remains ever elusive.
About 600 years before Christ, most prophets were predicting peace. God’s prophet wasn’t one of them. Jeremiah reminded the people that God had said, “Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people” (Jeremiah 7:23). Yet they repeatedly ignored the Lord and His commands. Their false prophets said, “Peace, peace” (8:11), but Jeremiah predicted disaster. Jerusalem fell in 586 bc.
Peace is rare. But amid Jeremiah’s book of dire prophecies we discover a God who loves relentlessly. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” the Lord told His rebellious people. “I will build you up again” (31:3–4).
God is a God of love and peace. Conflict comes because of our rebellion against Him. Sin destroys the world’s peace and robs each of us of inner peace. Jesus came to this planet to reconcile us to God and give us that inner peace. “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” wrote the apostle Paul (Romans 5:1). His words are among the most hope-filled ever written.
Whether we live in a combat zone or dwell in a serene neighborhood with nary a whisper of war, Christ invites us into His peace.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. C. S. Lewis
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Submitting to God’s Purpose
I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. —1 Corinthians 9:22
A Christian worker has to learn how to be God’s man or woman of great worth and excellence in the midst of a multitude of meager and worthless things. Never protest by saying, “If only I were somewhere else!” All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them. Unless we have the right purpose intellectually in our minds and lovingly in our hearts, we will very quickly be diverted from being useful to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no purpose of God’s almighty grace or His mighty Word in them. Paul’s whole heart, mind, and soul were consumed with the great purpose of what Jesus Christ came to do, and he never lost sight of that one thing. We must continually confront ourselves with one central fact— “…Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
“I chose you…” (John 15:16). Keep these words as a wonderful reminder in your theology. It is not that you have gotten God, but that He has gotten you. God is at work bending, breaking, molding, and doing exactly as He chooses. And why is He doing it? He is doing it for only one purpose— that He may be able to say, “This is My man, and this is My woman.” We have to be in God’s hand so that He can place others on the Rock, Jesus Christ, just as He has placed us.
Never choose to be a worker, but once God has placed His call upon you, woe be to you if you “turn aside…to the right or the left…” (Deuteronomy 28:14). He will do with you what He never did before His call came to you, and He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Storm Proof Security - #8294
If they ever ask me to be a participant in those Nielsen ratings of who's watching what TV show, they'll probably find me watching the Weather Channel more than a lot of viewers. Oh, not necessarily because I'm intrigued with low-pressure systems, or barometric readings, or cumulonimbus clouds, (See, I do watch.) but because I want to see my future in the places I might be traveling to. But sometimes, they don't have the weather on. I remember a while back they had a primetime documentary show called "Storm Stories." Now while the story of a storm that happened twenty years ago isn't going to help me plan for tomorrow, the stories were pretty dramatic. They often featured amazing accounts of the people who survived major weather disasters-and the people who didn't. It was especially interesting to see what steps would help you to be a storm survivor rather than a storm victim.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Storm Proof Security."
I'll bet you've got your own personal "storm stories," don't you? I've got mine-some life storms that you've been hit with; medical storms, financial storms, family, marital, heavy weather with your kids, your work, your ministry, your relationships. One of the most dramatic storm stories I ever read is actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 27, beginning with verse 20. It's going to help you survive your storm-because it shows the two anchors you can hang onto and no storm can touch.
Paul is a Roman prisoner. He's being carried to Rome aboard a ship loaded with Caesar's grain, and they get hit with this massive storm that drives them all over the Mediterranean for two perilous weeks. Paul says, "We took such a violent battering...they began to throw the cargo overboard." That's pretty desperate. Then the apostle goes on to explain that "neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging." Have you ever been in a situation like that where none of your usual points of reference could help you and you're drifting and you're confused? That's what we're talking about here.
Then it says, "we finally gave up all hope of being saved." (Acts 27:18, 20) Notice, he says "we" gave up all hope. Even the spirit of the great Apostle Paul has succumbed to the storm. But then the next day we find him standing up and saying to everyone aboard, "Keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed." What happened? Well, God reminded Paul of those two anchors that will carry you through. He explains to the people on that storm-threatened ship: "Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.'" (Acts 27:22-25)
Anchor #1: Who you belong to. The God "whose I am." Don't let the storm make you forget that the Lord is your God and that His sovereignty is unshakeable. No life that is in the hands of the Sovereign Lord is out of control no matter how much it feels like the storm is winning. If you are His child, then every storm in your life has either been sent by Him or approved by Him for His glory, for your good and for your growth.
Anchor #2: Who you do it for. The God "whom I serve." The storm can blow away every reason for finishing the thing that God gave you to do except one-the One who called you to do it. He hasn't moved, no matter how much the ship is getting blown around. God told Paul, "The mission I've given you, you will complete." I think He's saying the same thing to you. Hang onto your anchors and no storm, however violent, is going to sink you!
About the ending of the storm story: The ship that was supposed to be headed from Israel to Italy...the ship that had been seemingly out of control for two weeks ended up going aground on the island just south of Italy. All the time Paul's ship had appeared to be out of control, but guess what? It had been right on course, and so is yours because of the God "whose you are and whom you serve."