Max Lucado Daily: FEAR OF THE COMING WINTER
In Luke 12:19-20, the rich man said to himself, “‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.’” “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.’” The rich fool went to the wrong person— he went to himself. And he asked the wrong question— What shall I do? His error was that his plans did not include God.
Jesus didn’t criticize the man’s affluence. He criticized the man’s arrogance. Accumulation of wealth is a popular defense against fear. We think the more we have, the safer we are. God does not want his children to trust money. God is the great provider; the great giver. Absolutely generous and utterly dependable. Trust him, not stuff!
Read more Fearless
John 5:1-24
Even on the Sabbath
5 1-6 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”
7 The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”
8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.
9-10 That day happened to be the Sabbath. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, “It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules.”
11 But he told them, “The man who made me well told me to. He said, ‘Take your bedroll and start walking.’”
12-13 They asked, “Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?” But the healed man didn’t know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.
14 A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.”
15-16 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. That is why the Jews were out to get Jesus—because he did this kind of thing on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus defended himself. “My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”
18 That really set them off. The Jews were now not only out to expose him; they were out to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, putting himself on a level with God.
What the Father Does, the Son Does
19-20 So Jesus explained himself at length. “I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing.
20-23 “But you haven’t seen the half of it yet, for in the same way that the Father raises the dead and creates life, so does the Son. The Son gives life to anyone he chooses. Neither he nor the Father shuts anyone out. The Father handed all authority to judge over to the Son so that the Son will be honored equally with the Father. Anyone who dishonors the Son, dishonors the Father, for it was the Father’s decision to put the Son in the place of honor.
24 “It’s urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 15:1-11
What Pollutes Your Life
15 1-2 After that, Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, “Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?”
3-9 But Jesus put it right back on them. “Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God’s commands? God clearly says, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel around that by saying, ‘Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I’ve given to God.’ That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You cancel God’s command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they’re worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”
10-11 He then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up.”
Insight
When Jerusalem leaders asked Jesus why His disciples ignored the custom of ritual washing (Matthew 15:1–2), He quoted one of their own prophets. Seven hundred years earlier, Isaiah warned about the danger of honoring God with their mouths while their hearts remained far from Him (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7–8). Rules of religious compliance have never been a good substitute for the kind of water and washing Jesus gives (see John 13:1–17). By: Mart DeHaan
Trying to Impress
Out of the heart come evil thoughts . . . . These are what defile a person. Matthew 15:19–20
When a college class went on a cultural field trip, the instructor almost didn’t recognize one of his star pupils. In the classroom she had concealed six-inch heels beneath her pant legs. But in her walking boots she was less than five feet tall. “My heels are how I want to be,” she laughed. “But my boots are how I really am.”
Our physical appearance doesn’t define who we are; it’s our heart that matters. Jesus had strong words for those masters of appearances—the super-religious “Pharisees and teachers of the law.” They asked Jesus why His disciples didn’t wash their hands before eating, as their religious traditions dictated (Matthew 15:1–2). Jesus asked, “Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” (v. 3). Then He pointed out how they had invented a legal loophole to keep their wealth instead of caring for their parents (vv. 4–6), thus dishonoring them and violating the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12).
If we obsess over appearances while looking for loopholes in God’s clear commands, we’re violating the spirit of His law. Jesus said that “out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality,” and the like (Matthew 15:19). Only God, through the righteousness of His Son Jesus, can give us a clean heart.
By Tim Gustafson
Today's Reflection
Lord, we are so prone to rely on our own efforts to impress You and others. Help us to be authentic in all our relationships, and to enjoy the restored heart we can have through Your forgiveness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Transformed by Beholding
We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image… —2 Corinthians 3:18
The greatest characteristic a Christian can exhibit is this completely unveiled openness before God, which allows that person’s life to become a mirror for others. When the Spirit fills us, we are transformed, and by beholding God we become mirrors. You can always tell when someone has been beholding the glory of the Lord, because your inner spirit senses that he mirrors the Lord’s own character. Beware of anything that would spot or tarnish that mirror in you. It is almost always something good that will stain it— something good, but not what is best.
The most important rule for us is to concentrate on keeping our lives open to God. Let everything else including work, clothes, and food be set aside. The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through. Let other things come and go as they will; let other people criticize us as they will; but never allow anything to obscure the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him. This is an easy thing to allow, but we must guard against it. The most difficult lesson of the Christian life is learning how to continue “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord….”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology, 199 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
A Heart Like His - #8358
I first learned about the United States Life-Saving Service years ago on a family vacation. We got to see a life-saving station that actually has been preserved at a strategic point along the Atlantic coastline. There used to be a lot of them. In some areas, they were like just seven miles apart, you know, along the coast. Each one was staffed by a seven-man crew. I'm going to tell you, these guys were ultimate heroes in every sense of the word! When a ship was in distress near their assigned area, they'd go out into the surf, out into the storm, even a hurricane to try to rescue the people on board. They lived their motto: "You have to go out. You don't have to come back." They saved countless lives who otherwise would have been lost.
But it was only recently that I learned how this heroism actually all began. William Newell was a medical doctor, and he was at the New Jersey Shore at a place called Barnegat the day after a ship had gone down during an overnight storm. He was at the beach and the bodies of thirteen crewmen washed ashore. He said, "Here I was, a man who spent his life trying to save lives. And here was a situation where I was absolutely powerless to do anything to help them. Something's got to be done about this." Something was. A few years later, Dr. Newell was Congressman Newell; in a position to make a difference. So, he led the effort to birth the United States Life-Saving Service. It started with a few life-saving stations in New Jersey, and then it quickly spread all along the Atlantic Coast because of one man's heart for those who were being lost.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Heart Like His."
One man looked at lives being lost and he said, "I cannot just let them die." Jesus is like that. That's why He went to an awful cross to rescue us from the otherwise inevitable eternal death penalty for our sins. And He's looking for others who will have a heart like that; a heart that looks at people around you and says, "I can't just let them die. I've got to do something about this."
One of Jesus' original rescuers, the Apostle Paul, expressed the heart that Jesus wants to plant in all of us in 2 Corinthians 5, beginning with verse 11. It's our word for today from the Word of God. He said, "Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men."
Paul never wanted anyone he knew to have to face the awful judgment of God for their sin. He went on to say, "Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all." If Jesus could die to save them, can't I at least tell them what He did for them? I can't just let them die. Where I live, where I work, where I go to school, the groups I'm in-that's my stretch of beach. I am His life-saving crew for the people there who don't know Christ.
This isn't about getting them to change their religion. It's not about religion at all. It's about the only One who died for their sins. There are a lot of religions. There's only one Savior. There's only one Rescuer. Your mission is to take them by the hand, walk with them up Skull Hill to that cross and say, "This was for you."
The church you're in, the ministry you're in-is it committed as top priority to saving lives on the stretch of beach you've been assigned by God, or are you just feeding and comforting the life-saving crew? If your ministry, your church, your Bible study isn't about rescuing those who will die otherwise, you might need a quick heart exam. Do you have the heart of your Savior? Because He said His reason for coming was to seek and rescue the lost. So you can't say you're following Jesus and not be reaching the lost. Because if you follow Him, that's where He's going.
An 1883 Life-Saving Service report to Congress displayed a photo of a life-saving crew and it asked this question, "Why would a group of ordinary men risk everything?" The answer explains why you and I must take whatever risks are necessary to help people we know be in heaven with us, "That others might live."
