Max Lucado Daily: PATH OF FORGIVENESS
Resentment sucks satisfaction from the soul. Bitterness consumes it. Revenge has a monstrous appetite. One act of retaliation is never enough. Grudges send us on a downward spiral.
Some people perceive the path of forgiveness to be impossibly steep. So let’s be realistic. Forgiveness does not pardon the offense, excuse the misdeed, or ignore it. Forgiveness is not even necessarily reconciliation. The phrase “forgive and forget” sets an unreachable standard. Painful memories are not like old clothing, easily shed.
Forgiveness is simply the act of changing your attitude toward the offender; it’s moving from a desire to harm toward an openness to be at peace. A step in the direction of forgiveness is a decisive step toward happiness.
Psalm 106
Hallelujah!
Thank God! And why?
Because he’s good, because his love lasts.
But who on earth can do it—
declaim God’s mighty acts, broadcast all his praises?
You’re one happy man when you do what’s right,
one happy woman when you form the habit of justice.
4-5 Remember me, God, when you enjoy your people;
include me when you save them;
I want to see your chosen succeed,
celebrate with your celebrating nation,
join the Hallelujahs of your pride and joy!
6-12 We’ve sinned a lot, both we and our parents;
We’ve fallen short, hurt a lot of people.
After our parents left Egypt,
they took your wonders for granted,
forgot your great and wonderful love.
They were barely beyond the Red Sea
when they defied the High God
—the very place he saved them!
—the place he revealed his amazing power!
He rebuked the Red Sea so that it dried up on the spot
—he paraded them right through!
—no one so much as got wet feet!
He saved them from a life of oppression,
pried them loose from the grip of the enemy.
Then the waters flowed back on their oppressors;
there wasn’t a single survivor.
Then they believed his words were true
and broke out in songs of praise.
13-18 But it wasn’t long before they forgot the whole thing,
wouldn’t wait to be told what to do.
They only cared about pleasing themselves in that desert,
provoked God with their insistent demands.
He gave them exactly what they asked for—
but along with it they got an empty heart.
One day in camp some grew jealous of Moses,
also of Aaron, holy priest of God.
The ground opened and swallowed Dathan,
then buried Abiram’s gang.
Fire flared against that rebel crew
and torched them to a cinder.
19-22 They cast in metal a bull calf at Horeb
and worshiped the statue they’d made.
They traded the Glory
for a cheap piece of sculpture—a grass-chewing bull!
They forgot God, their very own Savior,
who turned things around in Egypt,
Who created a world of wonders in the Land of Ham,
who gave that stunning performance at the Red Sea.
23-27 Fed up, God decided to get rid of them—
and except for Moses, his chosen, he would have.
But Moses stood in the gap and deflected God’s anger,
prevented it from destroying them utterly.
They went on to reject the Blessed Land,
didn’t believe a word of what God promised.
They found fault with the life they had
and turned a deaf ear to God’s voice.
Exasperated, God swore
that he’d lay them low in the desert,
Scattering their children hither and yon,
strewing them all over the earth.
28-31 Then they linked up with Baal Peor,
attending funeral banquets and eating idol food.
That made God so angry
that a plague spread through their ranks;
Phinehas stood up and pled their case
and the plague was stopped.
This was counted to his credit;
his descendants will never forget it.
32-33 They angered God again at Meribah Springs;
this time Moses got mixed up in their evil;
Because they defied God yet again,
Moses exploded and lost his temper.
34-39 They didn’t wipe out those godless cultures
as ordered by God;
Instead they intermarried with the heathen,
and in time became just like them.
They worshiped their idols,
were caught in the trap of idols.
They sacrificed their sons and daughters
at the altars of demon gods.
They slit the throats of their babies,
murdered their infant girls and boys.
They offered their babies to Canaan’s gods;
the blood of their babies stained the land.
Their way of life stank to high heaven;
they lived like whores.
40-43 And God was furious—a wildfire anger;
he couldn’t stand even to look at his people.
He turned them over to the heathen
so that the people who hated them ruled them.
Their enemies made life hard for them;
they were tyrannized under that rule.
Over and over God rescued them, but they never learned—
until finally their sins destroyed them.
44-46 Still, when God saw the trouble they were in
and heard their cries for help,
He remembered his Covenant with them,
and, immense with love, took them by the hand.
He poured out his mercy on them
while their captors looked on, amazed.
47 Save us, God, our God!
Gather us back out of exile
So we can give thanks to your holy name
and join in the glory when you are praised!
48 Blessed be God, Israel’s God!
Bless now, bless always!
Oh! Let everyone say Amen!
Hallelujah!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 21, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 6:47–59
ery truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Insight
Of all the “signs” (miracles) Jesus performed, John only records seven that point to Jesus as God’s Son (John 20:30–31). The miracle of the multiplication of the fish and loaves in 6:1–14 is one of those. (It also appears in the other gospels—Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:30–44; Luke 9:10–17.) The additional miracles John includes are changing water into wine (2:1–11), healing the official’s son (4:46–54), healing the paralyzed man (5:1–15), walking on water (6:16–21), healing the man born blind (9:1–7), and raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1–45). By: Arthur Jackson
A Feast of Love
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. John 6:51
In the Danish film Babette’s Feast, a French refugee appears in a coastal village. Two elderly sisters, leaders of the community’s religious life, take her in, and for fourteen years Babette works as their housekeeper. When Babette comes into a large sum of money, she invites the congregation of twelve to join her for an extravagant French meal of caviar, quail in puff pastry, and more.
As they move from one course to the next, the guests relax; some find forgiveness, some find love rekindled, and some begin recalling miracles they’d witnessed and truths they’d learned in childhood. “Remember what we were taught?” they say. “Little children, love one another.” When the meal ends, Babette reveals to the sisters that she spent all she had on the food. She gave everything—including any chance of returning to her old life as an acclaimed chef in Paris—so that her friends, eating, might feel their hearts open.
Jesus appeared on earth as a stranger and servant, and He gave everything so that our spiritual hunger might be satisfied. In John’s gospel, He reminds His listeners that when their ancestors wandered hungry in the wilderness, God provided quail and bread (Exodus 16). That food satisfied for a time, but Jesus promises that those who accept Him as the “bread of life” will “live forever” (John 6:48, 51). His sacrifice satisfies our spiritual cravings. By: Amy Peterson
Reflect & Pray
How has God satisfied your hunger? What might it look like for you to give sacrificially?
Jesus, thank You for giving Your body and blood for us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 21, 2019
Impulsiveness or Discipleship?
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith… —Jude 20
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman— an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises— human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God— but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people— and this is not learned in five minutes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 21, 2019
Out Of Control, Heading Downhill - #8551
My friend was used to handling heavy equipment, but he wasn't used to what happened that particular day. He had his trailer hitched to his dump truck. Now, you've got to kind of picture this: He was driving his backhoe onto the trailer. One little problem - guess it might be a physics problem. As the weight of my friend and his backhoe pressed on the back of the trailer, the rear wheels of the dump truck were suddenly lifted up into the air, which means there were no brakes on a downhill slope yet! So try to picture this: this man riding on a backhoe which is riding on a trailer, which is hitched to a truck that is heading straight downhill out-of-control. I said, "Man, what did you say?" His answer was pretty simple, "Oh no! Oh no!!" I guess he had absolutely no control. So how did he live to tell about it? Well, he threw that backhoe in reverse and he backed off as fast as he could. Balance was restored and the truck and the trailer - well, they jackknifed. And honestly I am not making any of this up!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Out Of Control, Heading Downhill."
That had to be one scary feeling, man, no brakes, racing downhill, you're out-of-control. Well it's a feeling too many of us know all too well when we're faced with one of those temptations that pull at us so hard. In fact, there might be someone listening today who is shall we say, losing your brakes, spiritually, morally. You're losing control and you're headed for a crash.
You might be in the greatest danger if you're slipping and you can't even see it. Satan seldom destroys us through explosion, he does it through erosion...just slowly getting you to compromise a little bit more, to lower your guard, to get a little closer to the flame. It's getting harder and harder, maybe, to resist what you know is wrong. Your brakes are slipping. And you can be sure the Biblical equation will prove tragically correct in your life as it does in every life. James 1:15 - "After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
If you're starting to lose control, if your downhill slide is accelerating, you've got to do what my friend did to save himself - back out fast! Our word for today from the Word of God provides a powerful example of the action that is going to save you a lot of scars and a lot of shame. Joseph has been taken as a slave to Egypt where he earns the top position in the household of a powerful official. But one day he's faced with the mega-temptation of a beautiful woman just offering herself to him. It was his master's wife!
In Genesis 39, beginning with verse 7, the Bible says, "After a while, his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, 'Come to bed with me!' But he refused." That was hard enough, but I mean this lady was there every day! And God tells us the very practical secret for putting on the brakes. Listen, "And though she spoke to Joseph day after day" - this is a relentless temptation - "he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her." Joseph, you see, remained pure by totally backing away from the source of his temptation. "He refused even to be with her" it says.
That's what it's going to take for you, too. Think about what it is or who it is that's pulling you away from God's best - that's weakening your resistance to sin. You've got to back out fast - out of that relationship, out of that group of people, out of that music, out of those websites, out of the things you've been reading or watching, out of those fantasies.
You've got to start fleeing the evil that you've been flirting with, avoiding the temptation that you've been reaching for a little bit, because it's all downhill from here. A crash is where this goes unless you back out now.
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