Max Lucado Daily: CHRIST’S SACRIFICE IS PERSONAL
Christ took away your sins. He endured not just the nails of the Romans, the mockery of the crowd, and the spear of the soldier, but he endured the anger of God! God didn’t just overlook your sins, lest he endorse them. He didn’t punish you, lest he destroy you. Instead, He found a way to punish the sin and preserve the sinner. Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you credit for Jesus’ perfection.
As long as the cross is God’s gift to the world, it will touch you but it will not change you. Precious as it is to proclaim, “Christ died for the world,” even sweeter it is to whisper, “Christ died for me!”
For my sins he died.
He took my place on the cross.
He felt my shame; and he spoke my name.
Thank God for the day Jesus took your place,
for the day that grace happened to you!
Read more GRACE
1 Kings 13
And then this happened: Just as Jeroboam was at the Altar, about to make an offering, a holy man came from Judah by God’s command and preached (these were God’s orders) to the Altar: “Altar, Altar! God’s message! ‘A son will be born into David’s family named Josiah. The priests from the shrines who are making offerings on you, he will sacrifice—on you! Human bones burned on you!’” At the same time he announced a sign: “This is the proof God gives—the Altar will split into pieces and the holy offerings spill into the dirt.”
4-5 When the king heard the message the holy man preached against the Altar at Bethel, he reached out to grab him, yelling, “Arrest him!” But his arm was paralyzed and hung useless. At the same time the Altar broke apart and the holy offerings all spilled into the dirt—the very sign the holy man had announced by God’s command.
6 The king pleaded with the holy man, “Help me! Pray to your God for the healing of my arm.” The holy man prayed for him and the king’s arm was healed—as good as new!
7 Then the king invited the holy man, “Join me for a meal; I have a gift for you.”
8-10 The holy man told the king, “Not on your life! You couldn’t pay me enough to get me to sit down with you at a meal in this place. I’m here under God’s orders, and he commanded, ‘Don’t eat a crumb, don’t drink a drop, and don’t go back the way you came.’” Then he left by a different road than the one on which he had walked to Bethel.
11 There was an old prophet who lived in Bethel. His sons came and told him the story of what the holy man had done that day in Bethel, told him everything that had happened and what the holy man had said to the king.
12 Their father said, “Which way did he go?” His sons pointed out the road that the holy man from Judah had taken.
13-14 He told his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” When they had saddled it, he got on and rode after the holy man. He found him sitting under an oak tree.
He asked him, “Are you the holy man who came from Judah?”
“Yes, I am,” he said.
15 “Well, come home with me and have a meal.”
16-17 “Sorry, I can’t do that,” the holy man said. “I can neither go back with you nor eat with you in this country. I’m under strict orders from God: ‘Don’t eat a crumb; don’t drink a drop; and don’t come back the way you came.’”
18-19 But he said, “I am also a prophet, just like you. And an angel came to me with a message from God: ‘Bring him home with you, and give him a good meal!’” But the man was lying. So the holy man went home with him and they had a meal together.
20-22 There they were, sitting at the table together, when the word of God came to the prophet who had brought him back. He confronted the holy man who had come from Judah: “God’s word to you: You disobeyed God’s command; you didn’t keep the strict orders your God gave you; you came back and sat down to a good meal in the very place God told you, ‘Don’t eat a crumb; don’t drink a drop.’ For that you’re going to die far from home and not be buried in your ancestral tomb.”
23-25 When the meal was over, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. Down the road a way, a lion met him and killed him. His corpse lay crumpled on the road, the lion on one side and the donkey on the other. Some passersby saw the corpse in a heap on the road, with the lion standing guard beside it. They went to the village where the old prophet lived and told what they had seen.
26 When the prophet who had gotten him off track heard it, he said, “It’s the holy man who disobeyed God’s strict orders. God turned him over to the lion who knocked him around and killed him, just as God had told him.”
27-30 The prophet told his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” They did it. He rode out and found the corpse in a heap in the road, with the lion and the donkey standing there. The lion hadn’t bothered either the corpse or the donkey. The old prophet loaded the corpse of the holy man on his donkey and returned it to his own town to give it a decent burial. He placed the body in his own tomb. The people mourned, saying, “A sad day, brother!”
31-32 After the funeral, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the same tomb where the holy man is buried, my bones alongside his bones. The message that he preached by God’s command against the Altar at Bethel and against all the sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Samaria will come true.”
33-34 After this happened, Jeroboam kept right on doing evil, recruiting priests for the forbidden shrines indiscriminately—anyone who wanted to could be a priest at one of the local shrines. This was the root sin of Jeroboam’s government. And it was this that ruined him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 16:1–11
A Miktam[a] of David.
Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”
3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.[b]
4 The sorrows of those who run after[c] another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.
5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.[d]
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being[e] rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.[f]
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Insight
In many psalms, introductory information precedes the actual song. This brief title or superscription sometimes identifies who the composer is and why the song was written (see Psalms 3, 18). The superscription can also provide information regarding dedication, performance, instrumental directions, and musical tunes (see Psalms 6, 7, 56, 60).
The introduction to Psalm 16 identifies it as “a miktam of David.” This annotation also appears in five other psalms (Psalms 56–60). Because Bible scholars don’t agree about what miktam means, most English Bibles make no attempt to translate it. Some think it could simply mean “inscription”; others suggest it designates psalms that deal with atonement for sin because its root word means “to cover.”
Precious
You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing. Psalm 16:2
“My precious . . .” First portrayed in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, the image of the emaciated creature Gollum in his maniacal obsession with the “precious ring of power” has become an iconic one today—for greed, obsession, even insanity.
It’s also a troublingly relatable image. In his tormented love-hate relationship with both the ring and with himself, Gollum’s voice echoes the hunger in our own hearts. Whether it’s directed at one thing in particular, or just a vague longing for “more,” we’re sure that once we finally get our own “precious,” we’ll be satisfied. But instead, what we thought would make us whole leaves us feeling even emptier than before.
There’s a better way to live. As David expresses in Psalm 16, when the longings in our hearts threaten to send us on a desperate, futile quest for satisfaction (v. 4), we can remember to turn to God for refuge (v. 1), reminding ourselves that apart from Him we have nothing (v. 2).
And as our eyes stop looking for satisfaction “out there” to gaze instead on God’s beauty (v. 8), we find ourselves finally tasting true contentment—a life of basking in the “joy [of God’s] presence,” walking with Him each moment in “the way of life”—now and forever (v. 11 nlt). By Monica Brands
Reflect & Pray
What’s the thing you often turn to for satisfaction when you lose sight of God? Who can be a source of support and love for you when you feel trapped in your addiction to “more”?
God, forgive me for thinking I can find what I need apart from You. Thank You for always being there even when I forget to look for You. Draw me to Your side to live in the joy of walking with You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
The Concept of Divine Control
…how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! —Matthew 7:11
Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct in this passage for those people who have His Spirit. He urges us to keep our minds filled with the concept of God’s control over everything, which means that a disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek.
Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. And once your mind is truly filled with that thought, when you experience difficulties it will be as easy as breathing for you to remember, “My heavenly Father knows all about this!” This will be no effort at all, but will be a natural thing for you when difficulties and uncertainties arise. Before you formed this concept of divine control so powerfully in your mind, you used to go from person to person seeking help, but now you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those people who have His Spirit, and it works on the following principle: God is my Father, He loves me, and I will never think of anything that He will forget, so why should I worry?
Jesus said there are times when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but you should trust Him. At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the thought that the mind of God is behind all things strong and growing. Not even the smallest detail of life happens unless God’s will is behind it. Therefore, you can rest in perfect confidence in Him. Prayer is not only asking, but is an attitude of the mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. “Ask, and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“I have chosen you” (John 15:16). Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you. My Utmost for His Highest, October 25, 837 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Proud - But Lost - #8482
I had to laugh as my friend Cathy told me about an experience she had at a former job, because it tells so much about how my half of the human race thinks - like men, I mean. Cathy and her boss had rented a car at the airport for a relatively short trip from the Dallas/Fort Worth airport to a nearby city. We're talking like a few minutes' drive, but not for Cathy and her boss. No, they just kept driving in circles, retracing their steps, turning around. I mean, her boss obviously did not know where he was going. So Cathy kept suggesting that he stop for directions, but, "No, I know where I'm going." Of course men always know where they're going, right? Well, she said she got to the point where she was ready to punch him if she saw this particular restaurant one more time! (Good thing she didn't!) Well, finally, four hours later, they got to their destination. Was this man lost? Uh-huh! Could he admit he didn't know where he was going? No! He's a man!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Proud - But Lost."
That's one of those frustrating things about a lot of us men. We can be lost, but too proud to ask for help. That's a mistake that has made many a man miss his destination, including the meaning of his life and even the heaven he hopes to go to when he dies. A man can be spiritually lost and even have someone in his life who is encouraging him to reach out to God, but he's too proud to do it. That can be fatal pride. Maybe you're a man like that. Well, God loves you too much to lose you, man, so He will do whatever it takes to open you up to what only He can do for you.
There's an example of this in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Kings 5, beginning with verse 1. It's the story of a powerful military leader in Bible times, a Syrian general named Naaman. The Bible says, "Naaman was a commander of the army of the king...He was great in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory..." Okay, so this is a man who has been very successful. He's a conqueror who can seemingly handle life's battles all by himself. But the Bible goes on: "He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy." In those days, leprosy was like a death sentence - something beyond his control, something he could not conquer.
So, Naaman follows a recommendation to go see God's prophet in Israel. He goes with a large military escort, loaded with treasures to help him buy a cure. But the prophet won't take his money and he tells him to go wash seven times in the muddy Jordan River if he wants to be clean. Initially, the general refuses, but his servants persuade him to reconsider. Humbling himself, the Bible says, "He went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy." More importantly, Naaman begins a relationship with God that day.
Do you know what God does with us men when we refuse to admit that we're lost without Him? In His love, He brings something into our life that we can't control or we can't fix. Maybe He's doing that for you right now. He's showing you what's actually been true all along: you're not really in control, no matter how much you thought you were.
And there's only one way to get through to God - it's got to be God's way. And that way is for a man, or woman for that matter, to come to the cross of Jesus Christ and say, "Lord, You died for the sins that I have done, and You are my only hope of being forgiven, of going to heaven. My only hope of my life being changed. I am Yours."
No, it's not a muddy river, but it's a cross where the blood of Christ was shed. That's where you get clean, that's where you get healed.
This may be your day to finally experience the love, the leadership, and the healing of Jesus for yourself. Sometimes it's not until we run into a wall that we let Jesus remove the wall between us and God. Listen, my friend, would you tell Him today, "I'm Yours."
I would love to give you some information. If I was with you personally, I would tell you what's at our website. Please go there and find there the biblical information that will help you anchor the rest of your life to Jesus. ANewStory.com is that website.
Please, don't let your pride make you lost forever.
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