Max Lucado Daily: WHEN LOVE IS REAL
In the summer before 8th grade, I made friends with a guy named Larry. He was new to town, so I encouraged him to go out for our school football team. It was a good news/bad news scenario. The good news? He made the cut. The bad news? He won my position. I tried to be happy for him, but it was tough.
A few weeks into the season Larry fell and broke a finger. I remember the day he stood at my front door holding up his bandaged hand. “Looks like you’re going to have to play.” The passage Paul wrote was a lot easier for him to write than it was for me to practice. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). If you want to plumb the depths of your respect and love for someone, answer this question: How do you feel when that person succeeds and how do you feel when they struggle?
Read more Grace for the Moment II
1 Samuel 8
Rejecting God as the King
When Samuel got to be an old man, he set his sons up as judges in Israel. His firstborn son was named Joel, the name of his second, Abijah. They were assigned duty in Beersheba. But his sons didn’t take after him; they were out for what they could get for themselves, taking bribes, corrupting justice.
4-5 Fed up, all the elders of Israel got together and confronted Samuel at Ramah. They presented their case: “Look, you’re an old man, and your sons aren’t following in your footsteps. Here’s what we want you to do: Appoint a king to rule us, just like everybody else.”
6 When Samuel heard their demand—“Give us a king to rule us!”—he was crushed. How awful! Samuel prayed to God.
7-9 God answered Samuel, “Go ahead and do what they’re asking. They are not rejecting you. They’ve rejected me as their King. From the day I brought them out of Egypt until this very day they’ve been behaving like this, leaving me for other gods. And now they’re doing it to you. So let them have their own way. But warn them of what they’re in for. Tell them the way kings operate, just what they’re likely to get from a king.”
10-18 So Samuel told them, delivered God’s warning to the people who were asking him to give them a king. He said, “This is the way the kind of king you’re talking about operates. He’ll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He’ll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He’ll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He’ll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He’ll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he’ll take for his own use. He’ll lay a tax on your flocks and you’ll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves. But don’t expect God to answer.”
19-20 But the people wouldn’t listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We will have a king to rule us! Then we’ll be just like all the other nations. Our king will rule us and lead us and fight our battles.”
21-22 Samuel took in what they said and rehearsed it with God. God told Samuel, “Do what they say. Make them a king.”
Then Samuel dismissed the men of Israel: “Go home, each of you to your own city.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, November 12, 2018
Read: Romans 6:1–14
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free[b] from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Footnotes:
Romans 6:6 Greek man
Romans 6:7 Greek has been justified
NSIGHT
Paul dismisses the notion that God’s grace permits us to do whatever we want. In fact, he finds the idea preposterous (Romans 6:2). God’s grace frees us to choose life in Him. That’s why Paul says, “Offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness” (v. 13).
Today, what do I need to offer to God? - Tim Gustafson
Who’s Driving?
By James Banks
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
My neighbor Tim has a figurine on his dashboard of a “wild thing” based on Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s book Where the Wild Things Are.
Not long ago Tim was following me through traffic and made some abrupt moves to keep up. When we arrived, I asked, “Was that the ‘wild thing’ driving?”
The following Sunday I forgot my sermon notes at home. I “flew” out of the church to retrieve them, passing Tim along the way. When we met later, he joked, “Was that the wild thing driving?” We laughed, but his point hit home—I should have paid attention to the speed limit.
When the Bible describes what it means to live in a relationship with God, it encourages us to “offer every part of [ourselves]” to Him (Romans 6:13). I took Tim’s response to me that day as a gentle reminder from God to yield my “lead foot,” because I am to give all of myself to Him out of love.
The question of “who’s driving?” applies to all of life. Do we let the “wild things” of our old sin nature drive us—like worry, fear, or self-will—or do we yield to God’s loving Spirit and the grace that helps us grow?
Giving in to God is good for us. Scripture says that God’s wisdom takes us down “pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace” (Proverbs 3:17). Better to follow where He leads.
Loving Lord, thank You for the grace You give us to obey You, and the peace You give us as we stay near.
What God requires He also inspires.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 12, 2018
The Changed Life
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17
What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is— has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above— you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.
What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 , or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. Disciples Indeed, 393 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 12, 2018
Tampering with the Pole that Holds it Up - #7263
The baby in the family! Now the baby in our family happens to be a boy. Today he is far from that baby, in fact he's a father himself. But we have this one photo that we all associate with his childhood which we love to bring up to him over and over again. It's our favorite; it's his un-favorite. He's about two years old. He's in our back yard, and he's standing next to our camping tent that has collapsed on the ground. In one hand he's holding a tent pole about twice his size. And he's holding his other hand against the side of the tent, looking totally bewildered. He's got this pitiful expression that says, "What have I done?" He was only playing with the pole and the whole thing came crashing down. And I hope he's listening today.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Tampering with the Pole that Holds You Up."
Well our word for today from the Word of God comes from Malachi 2, beginning at verse 13. It says, "You flood the Lord's altar with tears. You weep and wail because He no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. And you ask, ‘Why?'" Okay see, these people are at the altar. They're dedicating their lives. They're re-dedicating their lives. They're wondering why God isn't responding to them.
He says, "It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are His. And why one? Because He was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself and your spirits, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. ‘I hate divorce,' says the Lord God."
Well the Lord is saying here that it's the lifetime commitment between a man and woman that is the pole that holds up the whole tent. You remove that pole and it breaks down the relationship with God. It risks the spiritual welfare of a vulnerable child. See, God takes divorce, obviously, very seriously. Society used to, but of course that changed. The church used to but that's pretty much changing. And within the church at large, it seems the acceptable reasons for divorce have gotten broader and broader. And the more acceptable it becomes, the more likely it becomes that more people will choose that option.
The problem is that when you're left with the pole of lifetime marriage, the whole tent comes down. Keeping those vows is what supports the raising of children who love Jesus. They want to know that the love they came from is still going strong. I remember when that same little child, the baby I described to you, would get between my wife and me, come between us suddenly when we were hugging each other, and he'd look up at us and go, "mommy, daddy, can I be in the middle of your love?" that's where our kids are supposed to grow up, in the middle of our love. When they don't see the love they came from still going strong they get lost sometimes. See those marriage vows also support the church, they support our culture.
Married or not, let's take divorce as seriously as God does and not find ourselves encouraging a decision that goes against what God has said. If you are married, make it your choice there is no back door on this marriage. Divorce is not one of our choices. You will not allow an ounce of your energy to go into a possible exit scenario. Not an option.
Maybe you need a new start. But in this marriage, not in another marriage. If you are divorced, yeah, know that God hates divorce but He doesn't hate divorced people. And God is the God of new beginnings. He said "if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation...A new life has begun." Use your experience to help people heal their marriages and not to end them.
A bewildered two-year-old boy in our back yard didn't know what he was tampering with when he removed that tent pole. Well, don't ever get into a position where you're standing there with a collapsed marriage at your feet saying, "What have I done?"
God has made it clear that lifetime marriage holds up a lot of things that matter. So your marriage vows and your marriage...they're really worth fighting for.