Max Lucado Daily: FEAR OF VIOLENCE
Good people aren’t exempt from violence. We aren’t insulated. But neither are we intimidated. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Jesus had just told the disciples to expect scourging, trials, death, hatred, and persecution. To their credit, none defected.
Psalm 118:6 declares, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Satan unleashed his meanest demons on God’s Son. Yet the devil of death could not destroy the Lord of life. I pray God spares you such evil. May he grant you long life and peaceful passage. But remember, God wastes no pain.
Read more Fearless
John 4:27-54
Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.
28-30 The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves.
It’s Harvest Time
31 In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, “Rabbi, eat. Aren’t you going to eat?”
32 He told them, “I have food to eat you know nothing about.”
33 The disciples were puzzled. “Who could have brought him food?”
34-35 Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!
36-38 “The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That’s the truth of the saying, ‘This one sows, that one harvests.’ I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.”
39-42 Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: “He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!”
43-45 After the two days he left for Galilee. Now, Jesus knew well from experience that a prophet is not respected in the place where he grew up. So when he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, but only because they were impressed with what he had done in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast, not that they really had a clue about who he was or what he was up to.
46-48 Now he was back in Cana of Galilee, the place where he made the water into wine. Meanwhile in Capernaum, there was a certain official from the king’s court whose son was sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that he come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: “Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe.”
49 But the court official wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.”
50-51 Jesus simply replied, “Go home. Your son lives.”
The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, “Your son lives!”
52-53 He asked them what time he began to get better. They said, “The fever broke yesterday afternoon at one o’clock.” The father knew that that was the very moment Jesus had said, “Your son lives.”
53-54 That clinched it. Not only he but his entire household believed. This was now the second sign Jesus gave after having come from Judea into Galilee.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Romans 8:9-17
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
Insight
Before His death, Jesus said the Father would send us “another advocate to help [us] and be with [us] forever” (John 14:16). Since the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4; John 7:39), the Spirit of God now lives in every believer (Romans 8:9). As “the Spirit of truth” (John 15:26), He helps us to understand God’s Word (14:26). As the source of our new life (Romans 8:11), He guarantees our salvation (Ephesians 1:13–14), assuring us we are God’s children (Romans 8:16). He empowers us to live holy lives (vv. 5–13), making us like Christ (Galatians 5:22–23) and equipping us for ministry (1 Corinthians 12:4–7).
By: K. T. Sim
Always a Child of God
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Romans 8:14
During a church service I attended with my parents, according to the usual practice we held hands while saying the Lord’s Prayer together. As I stood with one hand clasped to my mother’s and the other to my father’s, I was struck by the thought that I will always be their daughter. Although I’m firmly in my middle age, I can still be called “the child of Leo and Phyllis.” I reflected that not only am I their daughter, but I will also always be a child of God.
The apostle Paul wanted the people in the church at Rome to understand that their identity was based on being adopted members of God’s family (Romans 8:15). Because they had been born of the Spirit (v. 14), no longer did they need to be enslaved to things that didn’t really matter. Rather, through the gift of the Spirit, they were “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (v. 17).
To those who follow Christ, what difference does this make? Quite simply, everything! Our identity as children of God provides our foundation and shapes how we see ourselves and the world. For instance, knowing that we are part of God’s family helps us to step out of our comfort zone as we follow Him. We can also be free from seeking the approval of others.
Today, why not ponder what it means to be God’s child?
By Amy Boucher Pye
Today's Reflection
Lord God, help me to live out of my central identity as Your child. Release me to live by Your Spirit, that I might share Your love and hope.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Am I Looking To God?
Look to Me, and be saved… —Isaiah 45:22
Do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and save us? He says, “Look to Me, and be saved….” The greatest difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and His blessings are what make it so difficult. Troubles almost always make us look to God, but His blessings tend to divert our attention elsewhere. The basic lesson of the Sermon on the Mount is to narrow all your interests until your mind, heart, and body are focused on Jesus Christ. “Look to Me….”
Many of us have a mental picture of what a Christian should be, and looking at this image in other Christians’ lives becomes a hindrance to our focusing on God. This is not salvation— it is not simple enough. He says, in effect, “Look to Me and you are saved,” not “You will be saved someday.” We will find what we are looking for if we will concentrate on Him. We get distracted from God and irritable with Him while He continues to say to us, “Look to Me, and be saved….” Our difficulties, our trials, and our worries about tomorrow all vanish when we look to God.
Wake yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter how many things seem to be pressing in on you, be determined to push them aside and look to Him. “Look to Me….” Salvation is yours the moment you look.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Who's Holding the Club That's Hitting You - #8357
We call him Evil Bert. He's not a nice guy at all. I was speaking for our Warrior Leadership Summit conference for young Native Americans when Bert made his appearance. Actually, I had asked a friend to make a puppet for me to use. That puppet had a dark mustache, dark eyes, a dark beard, and a wicked expression. I affectionately called him Evil Bert. Evil Bert carried a plastic bat in his hands as he and I walked through the audience. Suddenly, Bert would lash out and hit someone with his plastic bat. People wisely started ducking when he got close. The really smart young people there figured out the dark secret about Evil Bert. It wasn't really Bert that was hitting them. It was the guy who was using him as a puppet. That would be me.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Who's Holding the Club That's Hitting You."
If it weren't for the Bible, we'd never figure out what's really going on with some of the hammering we're facing in our life, and we'd never know how to respond and resist. But we do have the Bible. Like our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 6, beginning with verse 11. "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood (I guess those are the "evil Berts" that seem to be what's hitting us, seem to be the problem.), but it's against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
The people, the problems, the temptations that are bombarding you are often the puppets being used by your real enemy, Satan himself. Since this passage calls us to stand our ground, it's clear what the devil's attacks are trying to accomplish. He wants to use them to get you to retreat spiritually; to give up ground. He wants to take back ground that Jesus has gained in your life. So he keeps hitting you with whatever will make you discouraged, distracted, defeated enough to go back to the old you.
Satan wants to hit you hard enough that you'll run back to that old habit, that old escape, that wrong relationship, that old attitude. He's trying to drive you onto a spiritual detour like a cattle drover tries to herd his cattle. Once you're on that detour, he knows he can take your farther away from God's plans than you ever dreamed you would go.
Ultimately, all of the devil's "evil Berts" are for one goal-to get your eyes off Jesus. The devil stands no chance against Jesus, and as long as you're wrapped up in Him, the enemy can't bring you down. But if he can distract you from Jesus, he's got you. That's why you need to know who's really holding the club that's hitting you. So you'll fight him, not humans, not situations. You fight him; fight the real enemy.
You need to be using the spiritual weapons that the Bible says have "divine power to demolish strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). You fight your enemy with fervent prayer, with the Word of God that defies his lies. Just say them outloud. Say the truth of God outloud. You fight him with the name of Jesus and appealing to the blood of Jesus which signed our enemy's death warrant. Those things stop him like a bullet.
You know who this is. You know what he wants-to make you give up ground that Jesus has taken in your life. You know what to do. Stand your ground!