Max Lucado Daily: THE HEART OF JESUS IS PURE
The heart of Jesus was pure. Peter traveled with Jesus for three and a half years, and he described him as a “lamb, unblemished and spotless.” The heart of Jesus was peaceful. The disciples shouted for fear in the storm, but Jesus slept through it. Peter drew his sword to fight the soldiers, but Jesus lifted his hand to heal.
The heart of Jesus was purposeful. He aimed at one goal—to save humanity from its sin. “The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” His heart was spiritual. He took his instructions from God. It was his habit to go to worship. He memorized scripture. His times of prayer guided him. John 5:19 says, “The Son does whatever the Father does.” The heart of Jesus was spiritual. Let ours be the same.
Read more Just Like Jesus
2 Samuel 22
David prayed to God the words of this song after God saved him from all his enemies and from Saul.
2-3 God is bedrock under my feet,
the castle in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout;
My mountaintop refuge,
he saves me from ruthless men.
4 I sing to God the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself safe and saved.
5-6 The waves of death crashed over me,
devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
death traps barred every exit.
7 A hostile world! I called to God,
to my God I cried out.
From his palace he heard me call;
my cry brought me right into his presence—
a private audience!
8-16 Earth wobbled and lurched;
the very heavens shook like leaves,
Quaked like aspen leaves
because of his rage.
His nostrils flared, billowing smoke;
his mouth spit fire.
Tongues of fire darted in and out;
he lowered the sky.
He stepped down;
under his feet an abyss opened up.
He rode a winged creature,
swift on wind-wings.
He wrapped himself
in a trenchcoat of black rain-cloud darkness.
But his cloud-brightness burst through,
a grand comet of fireworks.
Then God thundered out of heaven;
the High God gave a great shout.
God shot his arrows—pandemonium!
He hurled his lightnings—a rout!
The secret sources of ocean were exposed,
the hidden depths of earth lay uncovered
The moment God roared in protest,
let loose his hurricane anger.
17-20 But me he caught—reached all the way
from sky to sea; he pulled me out
Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,
the void in which I was drowning.
They hit me when I was down,
but God stuck by me.
He stood me up on a wide-open field;
I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!
21-25 God made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I cleaned up my act,
he gave me a fresh start.
Indeed, I’ve kept alert to God’s ways;
I haven’t taken God for granted.
Every day I review the ways he works,
I try not to miss a trick.
I feel put back together,
and I’m watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.
26-28 You stick by people who stick with you,
you’re straight with people who’re straight with you,
You’re good to good people,
you shrewdly work around the bad ones.
You take the side of the down-and-out,
but the stuck-up you take down a peg.
29-31 Suddenly, God, your light floods my path,
God drives out the darkness.
I smash the bands of marauders,
I vault the high fences.
What a God! His road
stretches straight and smooth.
Every God-direction is road-tested.
Everyone who runs toward him
Makes it.
32-46 Is there any god like God?
Are we not at bedrock?
Is not this the God who armed me well,
then aimed me in the right direction?
Now I run like a deer;
I’m king of the mountain.
He shows me how to fight;
I can bend a bronze bow!
You protect me with salvation-armor;
you touch me and I feel ten feet tall.
You cleared the ground under me
so my footing was firm.
When I chased my enemies I caught them;
I didn’t let go till they were dead men.
I nailed them; they were down for good;
then I walked all over them.
You armed me well for this fight;
you smashed the upstarts.
You made my enemies turn tail,
and I wiped out the haters.
They cried “uncle”
but Uncle didn’t come;
They yelled for God
and got no for an answer.
I ground them to dust; they gusted in the wind.
I threw them out, like garbage in the gutter.
You rescued me from a squabbling people;
you made me a leader of nations.
People I’d never heard of served me;
the moment they got wind of me they submitted.
They gave up; they came trembling from their hideouts.
47-51 Live, God! Blessing to my Rock,
my towering Salvation-God!
This God set things right for me
and shut up the people who talked back.
He rescued me from enemy anger.
You pulled me from the grip of upstarts,
You saved me from the bullies.
That’s why I’m thanking you, God,
all over the world.
That’s why I’m singing songs
that rhyme your name.
God’s king takes the trophy;
God’s chosen is beloved.
I mean David and all his children—
always.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 05, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Numbers 9:15-23
The day The Dwelling was set up, the Cloud covered The Dwelling of the Tent of Testimony. From sunset until daybreak it was over The Dwelling. It looked like fire. It was like that all the time, the Cloud over The Dwelling and at night looking like fire.
17-23 When the Cloud lifted above the Tent, the People of Israel marched out; and when the Cloud descended the people camped. The People of Israel marched at God’s command and they camped at his command. As long as the Cloud was over The Dwelling, they camped. Even when the Cloud hovered over The Dwelling for many days, they honored God’s command and wouldn’t march. They stayed in camp, obedient to God’s command, as long as the Cloud was over The Dwelling, but the moment God issued orders they marched. If the Cloud stayed only from sunset to daybreak and then lifted at daybreak, they marched. Night or day, it made no difference—when the Cloud lifted, they marched. It made no difference whether the Cloud hovered over The Dwelling for two days or a month or a year, as long as the Cloud was there, they were there. And when the Cloud went up, they got up and marched. They camped at God’s command and they marched at God’s command. They lived obediently by God’s orders as delivered by Moses.
Insight
The divine unpredictability described in Numbers 9:15–23 adds repetition and emphasis to the last words of Exodus (40:36–38). Both describe how the God of the exodus used a mysterious cloud, a portable tent of symbols (25:8–9), and a terrifying desert to show the urgency of learning to rely on Him. Because of the Israelites’ failure to trust God when the twelve spies surveyed their new homeland flowing with milk and honey (Numbers 13; Deuteronomy 1), it took forty years and the death of a generation to help them trust Him more than their own eyes or fears. By: Mart DeHaan
Moves of the Heart
Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. Numbers 9:17
According to the US Census Bureau, Americans move from one address to another an average of eleven to twelve times during the course of a lifetime. In a recent year, 28 million people packed up, moved, and unpacked under a new roof.
During Israel’s forty years in the wilderness, the cloud of God’s presence led a whole family nation to make one move after another in anticipation of a new homeland. The account is so repetitious, it reads almost like a comedy. Over and over the huge family packed and unpacked not only its own belongings but also the tent and furnishings of the tabernacle, where the God of the cloud met with Moses (see Exodus 25:22).
Many years later, Jesus would give fuller meaning to the story of Israel’s moving days. Instead of leading from a cloud, He came in person. When He said, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19), He began showing that the most important changes of address happen on roads of the heart. By leading both friends and enemies to the foot of a Roman cross, He showed how far the God of the cloud and tabernacle would go to rescue us.
Like changes of address, such moves of the heart are unsettling. But someday, from a window in our Father’s house, we’ll see that Jesus led us all the way. By Mart DeHaan
Today's Reflection
In what ways does choosing to follow God unsettle you? How might prayer help to strengthen your faith and trust in Him?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 05, 2019
Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (1)
If I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. —Philippians 2:17
Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry and faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve Him. I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying, ‘Well done.’ ”
It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a “doormat” under other people’s feet. God’s purpose may be to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased…” (Philippians 4:12). Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket— to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted— not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1465 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 05, 2019
Stubborn Heifers - #8367
Once upon a time, there was a heifer named Muffet. She lived on a little dairy farm in the Ozarks. So did my wife - who wasn't my wife then. She was the farmer's young daughter then, and she told me that Muffet had a harder life than some of the other heifers, but it was her own fault. See, Muffet was a stubborn heifer. Would she stay inside the fence that was there for her protection? Oh no! She found ways to crawl through that fence. Which meant Muffet got a yoke attached to her head - basically a sturdy Y-shaped branch that made it impossible for her to get her head outside that fence. It was for her own protection. Now, it was a nuisance, but it was made necessary by Muffet's stubbornness. Other times, they would try to get Muffet to move, and without serious coercion, she would just plant her feet. Then there was the time she refused to stand still to be milked, and she started to charge toward the door. My wife's Mom - whose job it was to keep the cows inside that little shed - quickly slammed the shovel across the door to keep her in. Well, Muffet ran into the shovel and lost part of the cap on one of her horns. This is a difficult little girl here. They tell me from that day on, though, she went right in and stood there quietly for milking.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stubborn Heifers."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hosea 4:16. It's God's description of some of His ancient children, and some of His current children. "The Israelites are stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. How can the Lord pasture them like lambs in a meadow?"
In every generation, God has problems with His stubborn heifers. And like old Muffet, stubbornness brings a lot of unnecessary hardships. I wonder if, when your Heavenly Father looks at you, He sometimes says, "Oh, my stubborn one." Isaiah says, "'Woe to the obstinate children,' says the Lord, 'to those who carry out plans that are not Mine'" (that's Isaiah 30:1). These are God's children whose real theme song is not "Have Thine Own Way, Lord," but "My Way."
A farmer has to put cumbersome yokes and sometimes painful constraints on a stubborn one. And that may explain why life has been so difficult for you, and why there's been so much grief. It's unnecessary grief - grief because you just won't do it God's way. You insist on your way - your outcome - your timetable. In certain areas of your life or maybe your personality, you just have your mind made up how it's going to be and you're determined that not even God is going to make you change or move.
It doesn't matter how much you dress up your stubbornness in spiritual terms like "conviction" or "determination" or "God's leading," it's still your way versus God's way isn't it. And you can't possibly win on that one. It's costing you the fullness of God's perfect plan for your life because you won't surrender your plan.
But aren't you tired of the pain, the yoke, the frustration and the hits? God has brought difficulties into your life not to hurt you, but to get you to go where you otherwise would never go - to get you to stop what you'd otherwise never stop - to change what you would never change. Why? So your will will finally line up with God's will for you. So you can be all you were born to be.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus faced the awful prospect of carrying the weight of the world's sin, He prayed eight of the most powerful words in the world, "Yet not my will, but Yours be done." God may have been waiting a long time to hear those words from you. Maybe today's the day.
You've carried enough burdens; you've gotten enough scars, you've run into enough walls. It's time to surrender that stubborn heart and let God do it His way. You were created for a Shepherd, and God can't shepherd a stubborn heifer.
