Max Lucado Daily: WHISPERED REMINDERS
In Matthew 6 Jesus prayed, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
A prayer that begins…May I not view you as a distant father, but as one who has come to earth and understands the challenges and temptations of my life. Be near me today, whisper reminders that you’re close. My friends need you today as they make difficult decisions in their workplace and in their families. Show them you are closer than even their earthly fathers. Thank you for hearing me and listening to my pleas. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray this, amen.
Here’s my challenge for you! Every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!
Psalm 130
A Pilgrim Song
Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!
Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to my cries for mercy.
3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
and that’s why you’re worshiped.
5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he’ll say and do.
My life’s on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God—
with God’s arrival comes love,
with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel,
buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, November 18, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 23:1–9
“Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.
2 “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, 3 and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.
4 “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.
6 “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. 7 Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.
8 “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.
9 “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.
Insight
The covenant people of God were to be distinctive and separate from the surrounding nations. This was primarily to protect them from worshiping false gods. Exodus 34:15 says, “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.” God’s commands were protective, but that didn’t mean the people of Israel were to totally isolate themselves from foreigners. The word translated “foreigner” in Exodus 23:9 means to live among people who aren’t blood relatives. Because immigrants weren’t protected by family, they became dependent on the hospitality of the people where they lived—which the children of Israel had themselves experienced in Egypt during a time of famine (Genesis 50:15–21). By: Bill Crowder
Loving the Stranger
Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Exodus 22:21
After a member of my family converted to a different religion, Christian friends urged me to “convince” her to return to Jesus. I found myself first seeking to love my family member as Christ would—including in public places where some people frowned at her “foreign-looking” clothes. Others even made rude comments. “Go home!” one man yelled at her from his truck, not knowing or apparently caring that she already is “home.”
Moses taught a much kinder way to act toward people whose dress or beliefs feel different. Teaching laws of justice and mercy, Moses instructed the children of Israel, “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). The edict expresses God’s concern for all strangers, people vulnerable to bias and abuse, and it is repeated in Exodus 22:21 and Leviticus 19:33.
Therefore, when I spend time with my family member—at a restaurant, in a park, taking a walk together or sitting and talking with her on my front porch—I seek first to show her the same kindness and respect that I would want to experience. It’s one of the best ways to remind her of the sweet love of Jesus, not by shaming her for rejecting Him, but by loving her as He loves all of us—with amazing grace. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What attitudes do you hold about people who appear “different” or “foreign”? In what ways can you practice God’s edict to not mistreat a “stranger” or “sojourner” in your land?
Gracious Father, open my heart today to a stranger or foreigner in my land, helping them to encounter You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 18, 2019
Winning into Freedom
If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. —John 8:36
If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in us, it always says, “I can’t surrender,” or “I can’t be free.” But the spiritual part of our being never says “I can’t”; it simply soaks up everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin— we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience.
God pays no attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual life. His plan runs right through our natural life. We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him by saying, “I can’t do that.” God will not discipline us; we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our “arguments…and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5)— we have to do it. Don’t say, “Oh, Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts.” Don’t suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life.
“If the Son makes you free….” Do not substitute Savior for Son in this passage. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. It is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20 when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ….” His individuality had been broken and his spirit had been united with his Lord; not just merged into Him, but made one with Him. “…you shall be free indeed”— free to the very core of your being; free from the inside to the outside. We tend to rely on our own energy, instead of being energized by the power that comes from identification with Jesus.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
For the past three hundred years men have been pointing out how similar Jesus Christ’s teachings are to other good teachings. We have to remember that Christianity, if it is not a supernatural miracle, is a sham. The Highest Good, 548 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 18, 2019
The Power of the Name - #8571
My friend Margaret had just been to a family gathering in the Midwest, and she saw many loved ones there, including her deputy sheriff nephew. Now, as she started heading home, her foot got, shall we say, a little heavy. Or at least that's what the officer who pulled her over seemed to think. As he turned to go back to his car with her license and registration in hand, Margaret said, "Do you know Deputy _________?" and she mentioned her nephew's name. The officer did know him. After a few minutes of record checking and paperwork in his squad car, the officer returned to Margaret's car and said, "I'm just going to give you a warning," followed by, "I checked with your nephew."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power of the Name."
Now we could discuss the appropriateness of Margaret's invoking her nephew's name. But one thing is very clear. There can be decisive power in a name, even power that delivers you from what you deserve. And there is no name with more decisive power in all the universe than the name of Jesus. His name accomplishes things that nothing else can accomplish.
In John 14:14, Jesus said, "You may ask for anything in My name, and I will do it." The name of Jesus opens heaven's resources to meet your deepest needs - not just used as some hollow mantra, but as an expression of complete reliance on your living Lord. Acts 4:12 makes clear that "there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." It's only the name of Jesus that opens heaven to us sinners who could only have our sins forgiven by the man who died for them. When we come to God, calling on the name of His Son, we don't get the awful judgment we deserve. Jesus took it for us.
And nowhere is the power of that name expressed more boldly than in our word for today from the Word of God in Philippians 2:9-10. "God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." It is the name of Jesus that subdues all opposition, that intimidates, that paralyzes all the forces of hell.
That's the reason those who plotted the death of Jesus told His early followers to stop speaking what they called "the name." Hell has been trying to get Christians to stop saying the name that hell fears ever since. Now, maybe you've choked on that name, even though those who don't care about his name use his name all the time. The old hymn writer said it pretty well, "Jesus! And shall it be a mortal man ashamed of Thee? Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise, whose glories shine through endless days? Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend on whom my hopes of heaven depend? No; when I blush, be this my shame, that I no more revere His name."
Jesus: the name that opens heaven's resources to meet your every need, that makes heaven possible for you, that subdues every other being in the universe. How can we live ordinary, powerless lives? How can we surrender to hell and be ashamed to speak His name? And it may be you've never called on that name of Jesus and asked Him to be your personal Rescuer from your personal sin. God's been waiting a long time to hear that from you. This could be your day to do that.
One day you will bow before Jesus. He will come then as judge. Today He's offering himself to you as your personal Savior; your Rescuer from your sin and its death penalty. If you'll grab Him in total faith and say, "Jesus, I'm yours."
There's some great information at our website that I want to give you today that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus. And that website is ANewStory.com. Get there as soon as you can.
The song writer said, "Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, but there is something about that Name!"
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