Max Lucado Daily: FEAR CAN CAUSE US TO WORSHIP SAFETY
When fear shapes our lives, safety becomes our god. We worship the risk-free life. The fear-filled cannot love deeply because love is risky. They cannot give to the poor because benevolence has no guarantee of return. The fear-filled cannot dream wildly. What if their dreams fail?
No wonder Jesus wages such a war against fear. In Matthew 8:26, “Jesus got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves, and it became completely calm.” The sea becomes as still as a frozen lake, and the disciples are left wondering, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” What kind of man, indeed. Turning typhoon time into nap time. Silencing waves with one wor
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Psalm 30
A David Psalm
30 I give you all the credit, God—
you got me out of that mess,
you didn’t let my foes gloat.
2-3 God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out.
4-5 All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
Thank him to his face!
He gets angry once in a while, but across
a lifetime there is only love.
The nights of crying your eyes out
give way to days of laughter.
6-7 When things were going great
I crowed, “I’ve got it made.
I’m God’s favorite.
He made me king of the mountain.”
Then you looked the other way
and I fell to pieces.
8-10 I called out to you, God;
I laid my case before you:
“Can you sell me for a profit when I’m dead?
auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?
When I’m ‘dust to dust’ my songs
and stories of you won’t sell.
So listen! and be kind!
Help me out of this!”
11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I’m about to burst with song;
I can’t keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can’t thank you enough.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 03, 2019
Read: Genesis 3:1–10
The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
2-3 The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
4-5 The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
6 When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
7 Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
8 When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
9 God called to the Man: “Where are you?”
10 He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
INSIGHT
As the book of beginnings, Genesis gives us our first look at how God responds to our sin with a just balance of mercy and consequence. Our Father’s ability to judge sin while loving the sinner shows up in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:14–21) and later when Cain kills his brother (4:8–16). We see it again and again in a pattern that leads through Sinai (Exodus 34:5–7), the songs of Israel (Psalm 99:8), and most completely in the crucifixion of Jesus (Luke 23:34). - Mart DeHaan
Eyes Tightly Shut
By Kirsten Holmberg
They hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8
He knew he shouldn’t have done it. I could clearly see he knew it was wrong: it was written all over his face! As I sat down to discuss his wrongdoing with him, my nephew quickly squeezed his eyes shut. There he sat, thinking—with three-year-old logic—that if he couldn’t see me, then I must not be able to see him. And if he was invisible to me, then he could avoid the conversation (and consequences) he anticipated.
I’m so glad I could see him in that moment. While I couldn’t condone his actions, and we needed to talk about it, I really didn’t want anything to come between us. I wanted him to look fully into my face and see how much I love him and was eager to forgive him! In that moment, I caught a glimmer of how God might have felt when Adam and Eve broke His trust in the garden of Eden. Realizing their guilt, they tried to hide from God (Genesis 3:10), who could “see” them as plainly as I could see my nephew.
When we realize we’ve done something wrong, we often want to avoid the consequences. We run from it, conceal it, or close our eyes to the truth. While God will hold us accountable to His righteous standard, He sees us (and seeks us!) because He loves us and offers forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
Father, thank You for seeing me and loving me even when I do wrong.
God views us through eyes of love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 03, 2019
Clouds and Darkness
Clouds and darkness surround Him… —Psalm 97:2
A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him….” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet— getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God— it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us — “clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way— words.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 03, 2019
When It's More Than You Can Carry - #8344
Goodbye, Chicago! Hello, New Jersey! It was time for our first major move as a young family. Our ministry was pretty consuming, even back then, so we looked for the most inexpensive moving help we could find. We found a private moving company owned by a friend. Tom showed up with one other guy and they did a great job navigating our earthly possessions down this narrow apartment staircase. Some days later, we met them on the other end. The problem was that we were facing an even more challenging staircase to get to our new second-floor apartment. Probably the greatest challenge of all was our refrigerator. It was a heavy old bear...I mean, even to try to move it across the floor let alone up those stairs. But Tom said, "I'll take care of it." He proceeded to strap that refrigerator on his muscular back and carry it up that narrow staircase all by himself. All I could do was lamely yell, "Go, Tom, go!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It's More Than You Can Carry."
If I had insisted on carrying that fridge, it would still be sitting on the sidewalk in front of that apartment. But my friend carried it on his back, and he carried what I could never carry. That's what Jesus wants to do for you, if you'll just let it go.
God extends His awesome invitation in Psalm 55:22, our word for today from the Word of God. It says, "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." In 1 Peter 5:7, you're invited to "...cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." If we were to draw a picture of you and your burden right now, would you be all bent down, staggering beneath the weight of it all because you've been trying to carry it yourself? There's another person in the picture. It's Jesus, walking right beside you, whispering, "Let it go. Give it to Me."
You may have talked to the Lord about your burden but you've failed to trust Him with your burden. Like a car in need of repair, it isn't just enough to tell the mechanic what's wrong with the car. You have to leave it with him! Probably the biggest single reason we will not let go of our crushing burdens and concerns is this: control. We insist on keeping it in our control. We're too stubborn or too afraid to roll it over onto Jesus' back. Stubborn because we want our way with it, no matter what. Afraid because we apparently don't trust what Jesus will do with it. Result: an emotional and spiritual hernia from carrying what you never should have been carrying.
What's it going to take for the weight on you to be lifted? You're going to have to reverse what you learned from "The Little Engine That Could" and say those liberating words, "I think I can't." That moment of surrender makes you desperate for what God and God alone can do. And desperation is the condition with which God can do the most.
You trade stress for peace when you choose to rest on this load-lifting promise of 2 Timothy 1:12: "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day." God can be trusted. You know how you know that? He proved it at the cross. It won't be your load that determines the outcome. No, it will be your Lord! Philippians 4:6-7 promises that when you leave your needs and anxieties with God, "the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." If you're not experiencing that peace in the midst of your burdens, then you're still carrying them.
I saw a man pick up and carry on his back a load that would have crushed me. I have seen my Lord do that over and over again in my life...when I finally took my stubborn hands off of what I was carrying and totally trusted it to Him. You woke up carrying that load again today. Would you let it go today? Let Jesus do with it what only He can do. And tonight, you can rest in peace because it's out of your hands and in His.
