Max Lucado Daily: YOU HAVE AN ADVOCATE
Not all guilt is bad. God uses appropriate doses of guilt to awaken us to sin! God’s guilt brings enough regret to change us! Satan’s guilt on the other hand, brings enough regret to enslave us. Don’t let Satan lock his shackles on you.
Colossians 3:3 reminds us, “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” When God looks at you, he sees Jesus first. In the Chinese language the word for “righteousness” is a combination of two characters, the figure of a lamb and a person. The lamb is on top, covering the person. Whenever God looks down on you, he sees the perfect Lamb of God covering you.
It boils down to this choice: Do you trust your Advocate—Jesus or your Accuser—Satan? Give no heed to Satan’s voice. You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous!
Read more GRACE
Ecclesiastes 11
Be generous: Invest in acts of charity.
Charity yields high returns.
2 Don’t hoard your goods; spread them around.
Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night.
3-4 When the clouds are full of water, it rains.
When the wind blows down a tree, it lies where it falls.
Don’t sit there watching the wind. Do your own work.
Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.
5 Just as you’ll never understand
the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman,
So you’ll never understand
the mystery at work in all that God does.
6 Go to work in the morning
and stick to it until evening without watching the clock.
You never know from moment to moment
how your work will turn out in the end.
7-8 Oh, how sweet the light of day,
And how wonderful to live in the sunshine!
Even if you live a long time, don’t take a single day for granted.
Take delight in each light-filled hour,
Remembering that there will also be many dark days
And that most of what comes your way is smoke.
9 You who are young, make the most of your youth.
Relish your youthful vigor.
Follow the impulses of your heart.
If something looks good to you, pursue it.
But know also that not just anything goes;
You have to answer to God for every last bit of it.
10 Live footloose and fancy-free—
You won’t be young forever.
Youth lasts about as long as smoke.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, July 12, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 8:11-15
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Insight
Luke’s gospel is different from the other three gospels—Matthew, Mark, and John—in several ways. First, Luke was written by the only gentile gospel writer (and the only gentile contributor to the New Testament). Also, while Matthew and John were eyewitnesses to the events they recorded, and it’s believed that Mark recorded Peter’s memoirs, Luke’s gospel was the result of careful research (Luke 1:1–4). Being a doctor (Colossians 4:14), Luke uniquely shows interest in medical matters. For instance, while all four gospels record Peter’s attack in the garden of Gethsemane on Malchus, the high priest’s servant, only Luke tells us that Jesus healed him (Luke 22:51). Luke also is interested in how women fit into the story (8:1–3). Finally, Luke’s gospel was volume one of a two-volume history (along with Acts). In Luke and Acts together, Luke provides more New Testament content than any other New Testament writer, including Paul.
Son Followers
The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. Luke 8:15
Sunflowers sprout in a carefree manner all over the world. Pollinated by bees, the plants spring up on the sides of highways, under bird feeders, and across fields, meadows, and prairies. To produce a harvest, however, sunflowers need good soil. Well-drained, slightly acidic, nutrient-rich soil “with organic matter or composted,” says the Farmer’s Almanac, finally produces tasty sunflower seeds, pure oil, and also a livelihood for hard-working sunflower growers.
We also need “good soil” for spiritual growth (Luke 8:15). As Jesus taught in His parable of the farmer scattering seed, God’s Word can sprout even in rocky or thorny soil (see vv. 6–7). It only thrives, however, in the soil of “honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest” (v. 15 nlt).
Young sunflowers are just as patient in their growth. Following the sun’s movement throughout the day, they turn sunward daily in a process called heliotropism. Mature sunflowers are just as deliberate. They turn eastward permanently, warming the face of the flower and increasing visits from pollinator bees. This in turn produces a greater harvest.
As with those who care for sunflowers, we can provide a rich medium for God’s Word to grow by clinging to His Word and following after His Son—developing honesty and a good heart for God’s Word to mature us. It’s a daily process. May we follow the Son and grow. By Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What’s the condition of your spiritual soil? Rocky, thorny, or rich in spiritual “nutrients”? Why? When you follow the Son daily, how does this practice impact your honesty and heart?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 12, 2019
The Spiritually Self-Seeking Church
…till we all come…to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ… —Ephesians 4:13
Reconciliation means the restoring of the relationship between the entire human race and God, putting it back to what God designed it to be. This is what Jesus Christ did in redemption. The church ceases to be spiritual when it becomes self-seeking, only interested in the development of its own organization. The reconciliation of the human race according to His plan means realizing Him not only in our lives individually, but also in our lives collectively. Jesus Christ sent apostles and teachers for this very purpose— that the corporate Person of Christ and His church, made up of many members, might be brought into being and made known. We are not here to develop a spiritual life of our own, or to enjoy a quiet spiritual retreat. We are here to have the full realization of Jesus Christ, for the purpose of building His body.
Am I building up the body of Christ, or am I only concerned about my own personal development? The essential thing is my personal relationship with Jesus Christ— “…that I may know Him…” (Philippians 3:10). To fulfill God’s perfect design for me requires my total surrender— complete abandonment of myself to Him. Whenever I only want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. And I will suffer great humiliation once I come to acknowledge and understand that I have not really been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ Himself, but only concerned with knowing what He has done for me.
My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.
Am I measuring my life by this standard or by something less?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 12, 2019
The High Price Of Running - #8480
Eight wedding showers in a month! Six hundred guests scheduled to be at the wedding where 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen would attend the bride and groom. Four days before the wedding, the bride went missing after she went out for a jog. The American news channels were dominated by the all-out search and the investigation into the case of the vanishing bride, and then we learned what happened. The bride turned up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, claiming she had been kidnapped - a story which she later changed to tell the real story of what happened. She said that the stress leading up to her wedding had given her cold feet, and she just kept running with those cold feet. In retrospect, I'm sure folks must be saying, "Girl, why didn't you just tell someone what you were feeling?" Instead she ran from her family, her community, her wedding, and even from the truth. Tens of thousands of dollars and countless man-hours were spent looking for her. Now she faced the additional stress of negative national notoriety and even the possibility of legal or financial penalties. Pretty simple here: running solved nothing. It never does.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The High Price Of Running."
The flight of the runaway bride is a powerful lesson for all of us, actually. When you run from a problem, you only run into bigger problems. Just ask Jonah. He's someone to be thinking about if your tendency is to run away from the pain or from the pressure. God may be wanting you to consider the high price that God's prophet Jonah paid for running, so you can avoid the same mistakes and avoid the same pain.
Our word for today from the Word of God begins with Jonah 1:3. God has told Jonah where He wanted Him to go and minister but "Jonah ran away from the Lord" on a ship headed the opposite direction. It goes on to say, "Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god." Finally, Jonah "fesses up" to his running from what God wanted and he realized that he was to blame for what was happening to the innocent crew. He asks them to throw him overboard because as he said, "I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."
Finally, in the belly of the great fish that God sent to swallow and ultimately save His prophet, Jonah says, "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You." So Jonah finally faces his responsibilities. He faces his rebellion, and the rest of the story is about how, as the Bible says, "the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time." Aren't you glad we serve the God of second chances?
If you tend to be a Jonah - running from things instead of dealing with them - consider the incredibly high cost. First, you hurt the people you love. Second, like a runaway bride or a runaway prophet, your running stirs up consequences you had never dreamed of. Thirdly, you end up where you never dreamed, in a situation far worse than the one you were running from. And your running has given you no more answers, just more problems.
The God who loves you has come to you today to say, "It's time for you to face what you've been fleeing. Facing it and fixing it may be painful - but nowhere near as painful as leaving it broken." Jesus said, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). If you continue to flee, you'll never be free. Let out what you've been holding in, acknowledge what you've been denying, and be man or woman enough to say what Jonah said, "I know it is my fault."
Your big, big God with His big, big love for you has promised to go with you to face whatever you've been running from. You may not be able to handle it, but oh, He can. You just can't afford to keep running. It costs too much.
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