Max Lucado Daily: WHY WE WORSHIP
Worship adjusts us. It lowers the chin of the haughty and straightens the back of the burdened. It bows the knees, singing to him our praise. It opens our hearts, offering to him our uniqueness. Worship properly positions the worshiper. And oh, how we need it! We walk through life so bent out of shape. Cure any flare up of commonness by setting your eyes on our uncommon King. Worship lifts our eyes and sets them “on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power” (Colossians 3:1).
We worship God because we need to. But our need runs a distant second to the thoroughbred reason for worship– God deserves it. God would die for your sin before he’d let you die in your sin. What do you do with such a Savior? You lift up your gift in worship!
Amos 6
Woe to you who think you live on easy street in Zion,
who think Mount Samaria is the good life.
You assume you’re at the top of the heap,
voted the number-one best place to live.
Well, wake up and look around. Get off your pedestal.
Take a look at Calneh.
Go and visit Great Hamath.
Look in on Gath of the Philistines.
Doesn’t that take you off your high horse?
Compared to them, you’re not much, are you?
3-6 Woe to you who are rushing headlong to disaster!
Catastrophe is just around the corner!
Woe to those who live in luxury
and expect everyone else to serve them!
Woe to those who live only for today,
indifferent to the fate of others!
Woe to the playboys, the playgirls,
who think life is a party held just for them!
Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain!
those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles!
They could not care less
about their country going to ruin.
7 But here’s what’s really coming:
a forced march into exile.
They’ll leave the country whining,
a rag-tag bunch of good-for-nothings.
8 God, the Master, has sworn, and solemnly stands by his Word.
The God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:
“I hate the arrogance of Jacob.
I have nothing but contempt for his forts.
I’m about to hand over the city
and everyone in it.”
9-10 Ten men are in a house, all dead. A relative comes and gets the bodies to prepare them for a decent burial. He discovers a survivor huddled in a closet and asks, “Are there any more?” The answer: “Not a soul. But hush! God must not be mentioned in this desecrated place.”
11 Note well: God issues the orders.
He’ll knock large houses to smithereens.
He’ll smash little houses to bits.
12-13 Do you hold a horse race in a field of rocks?
Do you plow the sea with oxen?
You’d cripple the horses
and drown the oxen.
And yet you’ve made a shambles of justice,
a bloated corpse of righteousness,
Bragging of your trivial pursuits,
beating up on the weak and crowing, “Look what I’ve done!”
14 “Enjoy it while you can, you Israelites.
I’ve got a pagan army on the move against you”
—this is your God speaking, God-of-the-Angel-Armies—
“And they’ll make hash of you,
from one end of the country to the other.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 126
A song of ascents.
1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of[a] Zion,
we were like those who dreamed.[b]
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
4 Restore our fortunes,[c] Lord,
like streams in the Negev.
5 Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with them.
Footnotes:
Psalm 126:1 Or Lord brought back the captives to
Psalm 126:1 Or those restored to health
Psalm 126:4 Or Bring back our captives
Insight
Psalm 126 is one of the songs of ascent, a title given to fifteen of the psalms (120–134). These psalms are also known as pilgrim songs and were most likely sung by Jewish worshipers as they ascended the road to the temple in Jerusalem to attend the three required festivals or feasts (Passover, or Festival of Unleavened Bread; Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks; and Tabernacles, also known as Tents or Booths). We read about this requirement in Deuteronomy 16:16. Other scholars believe these songs were sung by the Levite singers as they ascended the steps to minister at the temple. Psalm 126 calls worshipers to rejoice as they remember how God “restored the fortunes of Zion” (v. 1), or Jerusalem, most likely when the people returned from captivity in Babylon during Ezra’s time.
Great Things!
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31
On November 9, 1989, the world was astonished by the news of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall that had divided Berlin, Germany, was coming down and the city that had been divided for twenty-eight years would be united again. Though the epicenter of joy was Germany, an onlooking world shared in the excitement. Something great had taken place!
When Israel returned to her homeland in 538 bc after being exiled for almost seventy years, it was also momentous. Psalm 126 begins with an over-the-shoulder look at that joy-filled time in the history of Israel. The experience was marked by laughter, joyful singing, and international recognition that God had done great things for His people (v. 2). And what was the response of the recipients of His rescuing mercy? Great things from God prompted great gladness (v. 3). Furthermore, His works in the past became the basis for fresh prayers for the present and bright hope for the future (vv. 4–6).
You and I need not look far in our own experiences for examples of great things from God, especially if we believe in God through His Son, Jesus. Nineteenth-century hymn writer Fanny Crosby captured this sentiment when she wrote, “Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done, and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son.” Yes, to God be the glory, great things He has done! By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
What great things have you experienced from the hand of God? How does reflecting on these increase your trust and hope?
Great things in the past can inspire great joy, great prayer, and great hope.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 30, 2019
Usefulness or Relationship?
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. —Luke 10:20
Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you do not have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).
Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory…” (Hebrews 2:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 30, 2019
Piling it Instead of Passing it - #8515
Usually the system works pretty well, except for this one time. My wife and I were at a famous farmhouse restaurant in Amish country - one of those places where they serve you mouth-watering farm cooking. Man, family-style they serve it. We were seated at a table with about ten other guests when the food started to arrive. Actually, most of us had held off eating very much that day so we'd be hungry, and we were. Usually, people take a serving of each dish then they pass it down; that's family style. Right? Not this time. No, there was this one couple at the end of the table who somehow managed to shortstop every platter as it arrived: the fried chicken, the roast beef, the fresh mashed potatoes, the homemade noodles and bread. They would plop this big serving on their plate and then just set the platter down in front of them. They were stuffing; we were starving!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Piling it Instead of Passing it."
So the idea is you take some for yourself, and then you pass on the rest to others. Not just at a family-style dinner, but in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. He doesn't hand us what we have just for us to pile it all on our own plate. He gives it to us to take some and pass on the rest to a needy world.
Paul talks about God's delivery system to the world in our word for today from the Word of God. It's actually in 2 Corinthians 9, beginning with verse 10. "Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way" - in other words, He'll trust to you a plateful of goodies from Him - "so that you can be generous on every occasion." Okay, so you can freely pass it on to others.
God's primary method for meeting human needs, for financing His work in the world, for helping the hurting is to give resources to His kids, expecting them to take a little for themselves and then pass on a lot of it to others. It comes from God; it's delivered through us.
Unless, of course, we shortstop the platter of supplies He's placed in our hands. When we do it, we are, in the words of the prophet Malachi, "robbing God" (Malachi 3:10). Sadly, too many of us are aborting God's delivery system by keeping for ourselves most of what He gave to us to give away. God's funds are trapped in our hands, so some of God's army is stuck without the ammunition they need to fight His battles.
I remember our four-year-old grandson got an award at church. Grandma and I couldn't be there for it, so we slipped him two one-dollar bills as our "proud of you" dollars. His first reaction: "Let's go to the Dollar Store!" Actually, he could go twice. But later, on the phone, he informed me of what he had actually done with those dollars. "I gave them to the church." He told me his uncles had each given him two dollars as well. He said, "I gave them to RHM (that's our ministry) so you could tell more people about Jesus."
At four, this little guy understood what many of us have forgotten. It's given to us to share with others, not just to spend on ourselves. In many places, great works of God are nearly paralyzed by growing shortfalls in giving. I don't believe that God, in most cases, is withholding what's needed for His work. It must be that we're sitting on or spending what we were supposed to invest in His kingdom.
Let's all take another look at what we're doing with the plateful, however modest, that God has entrusted to us. Is it mostly building our kingdom or His kingdom? Are we passing it on or just piling it on ourselves?
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