Max Lucado Daily: GUILT BENEATH THE SURFACE
What would an X-ray of your interior reveal? Remorse over a poor choice? Shame about the marriage that didn’t work or the temptation you didn’t resist? Guilt lies hidden beneath the surface, festering, and irritating. Sometimes it’s so deeply embedded you don’t know the cause of your pain. And you can be touchy, you know. Understandable, since you have a shank of shame lodged in your soul.
Would you like an extraction? Here’s what you do. Confess! Ask God to help you. Psalm 139:23-24 is a model prayer: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Confession. Confessors find a freedom that deniers don’t. If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins! He will cleanse us. Not might, could, would, or even should. He WILL!
Read more GRACE
1 Kings 20
At about this same time Ben-Hadad king of Aram mustered his troops. He recruited in addition thirty-two local sheiks, all outfitted with horses and chariots. He set out in force and surrounded Samaria, ready to make war. He sent an envoy into the city to set his terms before Ahab king of Israel: “Ben-Hadad lays claim to your silver and gold, and to the pick of your wives and sons.”
4 The king of Israel accepted the terms: “As you say, distinguished lord; I and everything I have is yours.”
5-6 But then the envoy returned a second time, saying, “On second thought, I want it all—your silver and gold and all your wives and sons. Hand them over—the whole works. I’ll give you twenty-four hours; then my servants will arrive to search your palace and the houses of your officials and loot them; anything that strikes their fancy, they’ll take.”
7 The king of Israel called a meeting of all his tribal elders. He said, “Look at this—outrageous! He’s just looking for trouble. He means to clean me out, demanding all my women and children. And after I already agreed to pay him off handsomely!”
8 The elders, backed by the people, said, “Don’t cave in to him. Don’t give an inch.”
9 So he sent an envoy to Ben-Hadad, “Tell my distinguished lord, ‘I agreed to the terms you delivered the first time, but this I can’t do—this I won’t do!’”
The envoy went back and delivered the answer.
10 Ben-Hadad shot back his response: “May the gods do their worst to me, and then worse again, if there’ll be anything left of Samaria but rubble.”
11 The king of Israel countered, “Think about it—it’s easier to start a fight than end one.”
12 It happened that when Ben-Hadad heard this retort he was into some heavy drinking, boozing it up with the sheiks in their field shelters. Drunkenly, he ordered his henchmen, “Go after them!” And they attacked the city.
13 Just then a lone prophet approached Ahab king of Israel and said, “God’s word: Have you taken a good look at this mob? Well, look again—I’m turning it over to you this very day. And you’ll know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that I am God.”
14 Ahab said, “Really? And who is going to make this happen?”
God said, “The young commandos of the regional chiefs.”
“And who,” said Ahab, “will strike the first blow?”
God said, “You.”
15 Ahab looked over the commandos of the regional chiefs; he counted 232. Then he assessed the available troops—7,000.
16-17 At noon they set out after Ben-Hadad who, with his allies, the thirty-two sheiks, was busy at serious drinking in the field shelters. The commandos of the regional chiefs made up the vanguard.
A report was brought to Ben-Hadad: “Men are on their way from Samaria.”
18 He said, “If they’ve come in peace, take them alive as hostages; if they’ve come to fight, the same—take them alive as hostages.”
19-20 The commandos poured out of the city with the full army behind them. They hit hard in hand-to-hand combat. The Arameans scattered from the field, with Israel hard on their heels. But Ben-Hadad king of Aram got away on horseback, along with his cavalry.
21 The king of Israel cut down both horses and chariots—an enormous defeat for Aram.
22 Sometime later the prophet came to the king of Israel and said, “On the alert now—build up your army, assess your capabilities, and see what has to be done. Before the year is out, the king of Aram will be back in force.”
23-25 Meanwhile the advisors to the king of Aram said, “Their god is a god of the mountains—we don’t stand a chance against them there. So let’s engage them on the plain where we’ll have the advantage. Here’s the strategy: Remove each sheik from his place of leadership and replace him with a seasoned officer. Then recruit a fighting force equivalent in size to the army that deserted earlier—horse for horse, chariot for chariot. And we’ll fight them on the plain—we’re sure to prove stronger than they are.”
It sounded good to the king; he did what they advised.
26-27 As the new year approached, Ben-Hadad rallied Aram and they went up to Aphek to make war on Israel. The Israelite army prepared to fight and took the field to meet Aram. They moved into battle formation before Aram in two camps, like two flocks of goats. The plain was seething with Arameans.
28 Just then a holy man approached the king of Israel saying, “This is God’s word: Because Aram said, ‘God is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys,’ I’ll hand over this huge mob of an army to you. Then you’ll know that I am God.”
29-30 The two armies were poised in a standoff for seven days. On the seventh day fighting broke out. The Israelites killed 100,000 of the Aramean infantry in one day. The rest of the army ran for their lives back to the city, Aphek, only to have the city wall fall on 27,000 of the survivors.
30-31 Ben-Hadad escaped into the city and hid in a closet. Then his advisors told him, “Look, we’ve heard that the kings of Israel play by the rules; let’s dress in old gunnysacks, carry a white flag of truce, and present ourselves to the king of Israel on the chance that he’ll let you live.”
32 So that’s what they did. They dressed in old gunnysacks and carried a white flag, and came to the king of Israel saying, “Your servant Ben-Hadad said, ‘Please let me live.’”
Ahab said, “You mean to tell me that he’s still alive? If he’s alive, he’s my brother.”
33 The men took this as a good sign and concluded that everything was going to be all right: “Ben-Hadad is most certainly your brother!”
The king said, “Go and get him.” They went and brought him back by chariot.
34 Ahab said, “I am prepared to return the cities that my father took from your father. And you can set up your headquarters in Damascus just as my father did in Samaria; I’ll send you home under safe conduct.” Then he made a covenant with him and sent him off.
35 A man who was one of the prophets said to a bystander, “Hit me; wound me. Do it for God’s sake—it’s his command. Hit me; wound me.” But the man wouldn’t do it.
36 So he told him, “Because you wouldn’t obey God’s orders, as soon as you leave me a lion will attack you.” No sooner had the man left his side than a lion met him and attacked.
37 He then found another man and said, “Hit me; wound me.” That man did it—hit him hard in the face, drawing blood.
38-40 Then the prophet went and took a position along the road, with a bandage over his eyes, waiting for the king. It wasn’t long before the king happened by. The man cried out to the king, “Your servant was in the thick of the battle when a man showed up and turned over a prisoner to me, saying, ‘Guard this man with your life; if he turns up missing you’ll pay dearly.’ But I got busy doing one thing after another and the next time I looked he was gone.”
The king of Israel said, “You’ve just pronounced your own verdict.”
41 At that, the man ripped the bandage off his eyes and the king recognized who he was—one of the prophets!
42 The man said to the king, “God’s word: Because you let a man go who was under sentence by God, it’s now your life for his, your people for his.”
43 The king of Israel went home in a sulk. He arrived in Samaria in a very bad mood.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, July 26, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 5:9, 13–16
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that[a] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Insight
The context of Christ’s words here is critical. He has just given “the Beatitudes”—the series of declarations in which He unveils the values of His kingdom. His radical credo turns the world’s values upside down. Jesus pronounces as “blessed” all who are “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3), “those who mourn” (v. 4), “the meek” (v. 5), “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (v. 6), “the merciful” (v. 7), “the pure in heart” (v. 8), “the peacemakers” (v. 9), and those persecuted for the sake of righteousness (v. 10).
Living by His values puts us in sharp contrast to the world. When we’re peacemakers, we permit a ray of light to dispel the darkness that threatens our world. When we suffer, those who see our response will notice the difference Jesus makes.
Making Things Whole
Blessed are the peacemakers. Matthew 5:9
In the documentary Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, author Berry spoke of how divorce describes the state of our world. We’re divorced from one another, from our history, from the land. Things that should be whole are split apart. When asked what we should do about this sad fact, Berry said, “We can’t put everything back together. We just take two things and put them together.” We take two things broken apart and make them one again.
“Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus tells us (Matthew 5:9). To make peace is to bring shalom. And shalom refers to the world being set right. One theologian describes shalom as “universal flourishing, wholeness and delight. . . . [It’s] the way things ought to be.” Shalom is taking what’s broken and making it whole. As Jesus guides, may we strive to make things right. He calls us to be peacemakers, to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” (vv. 13–14)
There are many ways to be peacemakers in the world, but with each may we engage brokenness rather than surrendering to it. In God’s power, let’s choose to not allow a friendship to die or let a struggling neighborhood languish or yield to apathy and isolation. Let’s look for the broken places, trusting God to give us the wisdom and skill to participate in making them whole again. By Winn Collier
Reflect & Pray
What are two things you’re aware of that need to be brought back together? How might God be calling you to participate in making them whole?
There are many broken things around me, God. I don’t know where to begin. Will You show me where to start?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 26, 2019
The Way to Purity
Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart….For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man… —Matthew 15:18-20
Initially we trust in our ignorance, calling it innocence, and next we trust our innocence, calling it purity. Then when we hear these strong statements from our Lord, we shrink back, saying, “But I never felt any of those awful things in my heart.” We resent what He reveals. Either Jesus Christ is the supreme authority on the human heart, or He is not worth paying any attention to. Am I prepared to trust the penetration of His Word into my heart, or would I prefer to trust my own “innocent ignorance”? If I will take an honest look at myself, becoming fully aware of my so-called innocence and putting it to the test, I am very likely to have a rude awakening that what Jesus Christ said is true, and I will be appalled at the possibilities of the evil and the wrong within me. But as long as I remain under the false security of my own “innocence,” I am living in a fool’s paradise. If I have never been an openly rude and abusive person, the only reason is my own cowardice coupled with the sense of protection I receive from living a civilized life. But when I am open and completely exposed before God, I find that Jesus Christ is right in His diagnosis of me.
The only thing that truly provides protection is the redemption of Jesus Christ. If I will simply hand myself over to Him, I will never have to experience the terrible possibilities that lie within my heart. Purity is something far too deep for me to arrive at naturally. But when the Holy Spirit comes into me, He brings into the center of my personal life the very Spirit that was exhibited in the life of Jesus Christ, namely, the Holy Spirit, which is absolute unblemished purity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 26, 2019
Accidentally on Purpose - #8490
I have a friend who fixes bodies - auto bodies, that is. And the sign in front of his body shop always has a provocative bit of philosophy to make you think or make you smile. I have to make it a note to tell my friend about a radio commercial I heard one time. I heard this ad. They were actually advertising an auto body shop in another area. It just struck me as being a clever motto for somebody in that business. It just said, "We meet by accident." Pretty good!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Accidentally on Purpose."
The only way most people meet the folks at that auto body shop is by accident. No accident, you don't ever feel the need. Right? I got to thinking God could hang out a sign like that, "We meet by accident." An "accident," I mean something in our life that goes wrong and we can't fix it. That, for many of us, is the only thing that really makes us ready to get serious about what God wants. We don't run to God until we've run into something we can't handle, we can't fix, or we can't control!
And, believe me, God loves you so much He will literally do whatever it takes to get you to turn to Him. In Bible times, no one knew that better than a man named Saul of Tarsus, who eventually became the world-changing Apostle Paul. Saul was a Zealot committed to his understanding of "pure" Judaism. He was angry with this new sect that claimed Jesus was Messiah and Savior. He became, in essence, a hit man against these believers, determined to stamp them out.
In our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 22, beginning with verse 4, he reflects on what ultimately drove him into the arms of the very Jesus he had hated. He said, "I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison..."
Then, on a trip to arrest Christians in Syria, he says, "As I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice..." That voice was the voice of Jesus, whom Paul surrendered his life to that day on the Damascus road. He goes on to explain that after Christ commanded him to go into Damascus, "My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me."
Knocked from his horse, blinded, totally dependent - that's what it took to get Saul to turn to Jesus. You know, it takes much the same for many of us to finally get us to come to Jesus in total dependency. We've got to get knocked off our high horse, face the situation we can't handle, we can't fix, we can't solve. If you've hit something that hurts, or maybe something has hit you, it may very well be the way God is using to get your attention.
Maybe He used to be in the center of your life and you've let your rapidly spinning life spin Jesus right to the edge of your life. Maybe you've been running so fast you've run right out of God's will. Or you've just been too busy for Jesus. It could be you've lost your first love for Jesus. Maybe you've never actually opened your life to the Man who gave his life for your sin.
But you've been hit hard. And, in reality, it is no accident. It's God's way to strip you of your fatal independence and to bring you into His waiting arms and His wonderful plans. Most of us won't surrender control, though, unless and until we get knocked off our horse and unable to go another mile. But that's where so many have discovered what an awesome Savior Jesus is. You've seen what you can do with your life. Now it's time to see what He can do with it.
Start that today. You can have a whole new story in your life because of Jesus. And that's the name of our website. I encourage you to go there today. It's called ANewStory.com, because like for many, your new story could begin today. Just go to that website, ANewStory.com. You'll find there the information that could be your new beginning.
Look, you've got the pain. Don't miss the point! God has allowed you to be hit hard so you would come running into His arms, which is where you've belonged all along.
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