Max Lucado Daily: THE DUNGEON OF DOUBT
“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). John the Baptist asked this question of Christ. John was in deep trouble; he was in jail and Jesus was silent. Anytime the faithful suffer the consequences of the faithless….anytime a person does a good deed but suffers evil results…they spend time in the dungeon of doubt.
Clouds of doubt are created when the warm, moist air of our expectations meet the cold air of God’s silence. You may learn what John the Baptist did: that the problem is not so much in God’s silence as it is in our ability to hear God’s solution.
Read more Applause of Heaven
Acts 4:1-22
While Peter and John were addressing the people, the priests, the chief of the Temple police, and some Sadducees came up, indignant that these upstart apostles were instructing the people and proclaiming that the resurrection from the dead had taken place in Jesus. They arrested them and threw them in jail until morning, for by now it was late in the evening. But many of those who listened had already believed the Message—in round numbers about five thousand!
5-7 The next day a meeting was called in Jerusalem. The rulers, religious leaders, religion scholars, Annas the Chief Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander—everybody who was anybody was there. They stood Peter and John in the middle of the room and grilled them: “Who put you in charge here? What business do you have doing this?”
8-12 With that, Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, let loose: “Rulers and leaders of the people, if we have been brought to trial today for helping a sick man, put under investigation regarding this healing, I’ll be completely frank with you—we have nothing to hide. By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the One you killed on a cross, the One God raised from the dead, by means of his name this man stands before you healthy and whole. Jesus is ‘the stone you masons threw out, which is now the cornerstone.’ Salvation comes no other way; no other name has been or will be given to us by which we can be saved, only this one.”
13-14 They couldn’t take their eyes off them—Peter and John standing there so confident, so sure of themselves! Their fascination deepened when they realized these two were laymen with no training in Scripture or formal education. They recognized them as companions of Jesus, but with the man right before them, seeing him standing there so upright—so healed!—what could they say against that?
15-17 They sent them out of the room so they could work out a plan. They talked it over: “What can we do with these men? By now it’s known all over town that a miracle has occurred, and that they are behind it. There is no way we can refute that. But so that it doesn’t go any further, let’s silence them with threats so they won’t dare to use Jesus’ name ever again with anyone.”
18-20 They called them back and warned them that they were on no account ever again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John spoke right back, “Whether it’s right in God’s eyes to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. As for us, there’s no question—we can’t keep quiet about what we’ve seen and heard.”
21-22 The religious leaders renewed their threats, but then released them. They couldn’t come up with a charge that would stick, that would keep them in jail. The people wouldn’t have stood for it—they were all praising God over what had happened. The man who had been miraculously healed was over forty years old.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 14:15-18
“If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.
Insight
When Jesus was about to return to the Father, He promised His disciples He wouldn’t abandon them but would ask the Father to give them “another advocate,” the Holy Spirit (John 14:16–17). Advocate is from the Greek word parakletos, which means “one who helps or enables another person” (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7–8). Various translations render this word “Helper” (nkjv), “Counselor” (niv), “Comforter” (kjv), and “Friend” (the message).
There are two different Greek words for “another”: heteros, which connotes another of a different kind; and allos, which means another of the same kind. Allos is the word used in John 14:16. When the Father sent the Spirit, He sent an equal—a personal representative (v. 26), not an inferior or subordinate substitute. The Spirit continues what Jesus did: He comforts, encourages, guides, and strengthens. He reminds us of all that Jesus taught (v. 26; 16:12–15).
Never Alone
He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. John 14:16–17
While writing a Bible guide for pastors in Indonesia, a writer friend grew fascinated with that nation’s culture of togetherness. Called gotong royong—meaning “mutual assistance”—the concept is practiced in villages, where neighbors may work together to repair someone’s roof or rebuild a bridge or path. In cities too my friend said, “People always go places with someone else—to a doctor’s appointment, for example. It’s the cultural norm. So you’re never alone.”
Worldwide, believers in Jesus rejoice in knowing we also are never alone. Our constant and forever companion is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Far more than a loyal friend, the Spirit of God is given to every follower of Christ by our heavenly Father to “help you and be with you forever” (John 14:16).
Jesus promised God’s Spirit would come after His own time on Earth ended. “I will not leave you as orphans,” Jesus said (v. 18). Instead, the Holy Spirit—“the Spirit of Truth” who “lives with you and will be in you”—indwells each of us who receives Christ as Savior (v. 17).
The Holy Spirit is our Helper, Comforter, Encourager, and Counselor—a constant companion in a world where loneliness can afflict even connected people. May we forever abide in His comforting love and help. By Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
As a believer in Christ, how does it encourage you to know that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you? How have you neglected God’s comfort?
Jesus promised we will always have companionship with the Holy Spirit, who never leaves us.
To learn more about basic Christian beliefs visit christianuniversity.org/ST101.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Unquestioned Revelation
In that day you will ask Me nothing. —John 16:23
When is “that day”? It is when the ascended Lord makes you one with the Father. “In that day” you will be one with the Father just as Jesus is, and He said, “In that day you will ask Me nothing.” Until the resurrection life of Jesus is fully exhibited in you, you have questions about many things. Then after a while you find that all your questions are gone— you don’t seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the point of total reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus, which brings you into complete oneness with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why aren’t you?
“In that day” there may be any number of things still hidden to your understanding, but they will not come between your heart and God. “In that day you will ask Me nothing”— you will not need to ask, because you will be certain that God will reveal things in accordance with His will. The faith and peace of John 14:1 has become the real attitude of your heart, and there are no more questions to be asked. If anything is a mystery to you and is coming between you and God, never look for the explanation in your mind, but look for it in your spirit, your true inner nature— that is where the problem is. Once your inner spiritual nature is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, your understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will come to the place where there is no distance between the Father and you, His child, because the Lord has made you one. “In that day you will ask Me nothing.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything. Shade of His Hand, 1200 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Beautiful Things That Fall Apart - #8447
Occasionally my wife would flip the TV on to one of those home shopping channels. And there actually were some good deals that showed up there, and sometimes I couldn't get to the remote fast enough. One day she saw this 14-karat gold bracelet and she decided to order it. When it arrived, it looked just as beautiful as it had on television, until our then two-year-old grandson got interested in it. He saw it on a dresser. Fascinated with this bracelet, he picked it up, played with it for a moment, at which point the bracelet totally fell apart. My wife said there was one drawback to ordering from television or catalogs; she just couldn't hold the jewelry in her hand and feel the weight of it. The bracelet turned out to be very attractive on the outside but hollow on the inside.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beautiful Things That Fall Apart."
Maybe you've experienced that kind of disappointment in your life, not with jewelry but with relationships, your job, your dream, your accomplishments, or even your marriage. It was beautiful for a while, but then it just fell apart. It's almost like many of the things we depend on for happiness and meaning turn out to be hollow inside.
Those disappointments actually can start us searching for something that is both beautiful and solid gold inside and out. Something that won't fall apart on us, something that won't let us down or leave us alone, something unbreakable - "unloseable." That search has led millions of people ultimately to Jesus Christ. It could be that He's where your search can end, too.
Jesus met a searcher at a well one day; a well where both he and this woman had stopped for a drink on a hot day. Their conversation later revealed that this woman had been looking for love and fulfillment in relationships with one guy after another. Now, we all look different places, but we're all looking. Her hopes, her search just happened to be in the series of relationships.
In John 4:13-14, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus identifies the problem with so many of the "beautiful things" we look to, and then offers something very exciting. Speaking symbolically, Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." Translation: things just keep leaving us unsatisfied, still searching. "But whoever drinks the water I give him," Jesus says, "will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." That's "eternal" as in unloseable.
What Jesus offers is not a religion, it's the one relationship - the one love that will totally fill the hole in your heart. It's the relationship with Him that the Bible says you were literally created for. That's why all those other beautiful things ultimately seem so hollow. But that relationship with Jesus is impossible as long as your sin stands between you and Him. No religion can take our sin away. Only He can because only He died to pay for it. If there was any other way, believe me, He would not have paid that awful price.
So your search for your life-anchor finally ends when you open up your life to the One who paid for your life on the cross. If you've never done that, you could do it right now where you are and say, "Jesus, I believe that some of those things you died for were mine. You were supposed to run my life and I did instead. Thank you for paying the death penalty that I deserve. And I'm reaching out to You to give myself totally to You by faith, believing You are alive because you walked out of Your grave, and Jesus I am pinning all my hopes on You to get me to heaven; to forgive my sins and to fill the hole in my heart.
When you do that you will finally belong to the One who loves you most. I want to help you make sure that you have Jesus in your life, that you've begun this relationship. That's why we've set up our website, ANewStory.com. If you go there, I believe you can leave that place sure you've anchored your life to the One who loves you most.
You know what it is to pin your hopes on something beautiful for a while, until it falls apart in your hands. Jesus is offering you some life that is beautiful eternally. And no matter what else falls apart, this relationship is the one thing you will never lose.
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