Max Lucado Daily: LOVING THE PEOPLE YOU’RE STUCK WITH
Few situations stir panic like being trapped in a relationship. Some opt to flee– to get out of the relationship. Others fight, and tension becomes a way of life. A few, however, discover another treatment– forgiveness.
In Jesus’ day the task of washing feet was reserved for the lowest of the servants. But, in the Chapter 13 of John’s gospel, the one with the basin and towel is the king of the universe. What a passionate moment when Jesus silently washes the feet of all the disciples… even Judas. Jesus knows that, by morning, these men will bury their heads in shame. Remarkable. He forgave their sin before they even committed it. He offered mercy before they even sought it.
Read more Just Like Jesus
2 Samuel 24
Once again God’s anger blazed out against Israel. He tested David by telling him, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.” So David gave orders to Joab and the army officers under him, “Canvass all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and get a count of the population. I want to know the number.”
3 But Joab resisted the king: “May your God multiply people by the hundreds right before the eyes of my master the king, but why on earth would you do a thing like this?”
4-9 Nevertheless, the king insisted, and so Joab and the army officers left the king to take a census of Israel. They crossed the Jordan and began with Aroer and the town in the canyon of the Gadites near Jazer, proceeded through Gilead, passed Hermon, then on to Dan, but detoured Sidon. They covered Fort Tyre and all the Hivite and Canaanite cities, and finally reached the Negev of Judah at Beersheba. They canvassed the whole country and after nine months and twenty days arrived back in Jerusalem. Joab gave the results of the census to the king: 800,000 able-bodied fighting men in Israel; in Judah 500,000.
10 But when it was all done, David was overwhelmed with guilt because he had counted the people, replacing trust with statistics. And David prayed to God, “I have sinned badly in what I have just done. But now God forgive my guilt—I’ve been really stupid.”
11-12 When David got up the next morning, the word of God had already come to Gad the prophet, David’s spiritual advisor, “Go and give David this message: ‘God has spoken thus: There are three things I can do to you; choose one out of the three and I’ll see that it’s done.’”
13 Gad came to deliver the message: “Do you want three years of famine in the land, or three months of running from your enemies while they chase you down, or three days of an epidemic on the country? Think it over and make up your mind. What shall I tell the one who sent me?”
14 David told Gad, “They’re all terrible! But I’d rather be punished by God, whose mercy is great, than fall into human hands.”
15-16 So God let loose an epidemic from morning until suppertime. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand people died. But when the angel reached out over Jerusalem to destroy it, God felt the pain of the terror and told the angel who was spreading death among the people, “Enough’s enough! Pull back!”
The angel of God had just reached the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel hovering between earth and sky, sword drawn and about to strike Jerusalem. David and the elders bowed in prayer and covered themselves with rough burlap.
17 When David saw the angel about to destroy the people, he prayed, “Please! I’m the one who sinned; I, the shepherd, did the wrong. But these sheep, what did they do wrong? Punish me and my family, not them.”
18-19 That same day Gad came to David and said, “Go and build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” David did what Gad told him, what God commanded.
20-21 Araunah looked up and saw David and his men coming his way; he met them, bowing deeply, honoring the king and saying, “Why has my master the king come to see me?”
“To buy your threshing floor,” said David, “so I can build an altar to God here and put an end to this disaster.”
22-23 “Oh,” said Araunah, “let my master the king take and sacrifice whatever he wants. Look, here’s an ox for the burnt offering and threshing paddles and ox-yokes for fuel—Araunah gives it all to the king! And may God, your God, act in your favor.”
24-25 But the king said to Araunah, “No. I’ve got to buy it from you for a good price; I’m not going to offer God, my God, sacrifices that are no sacrifice.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the ox, paying out fifty shekels of silver. He built an altar to God there and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. God was moved by the prayers and that was the end of the disaster.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 07, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Ephesians 2:6-10
It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
Insight
One of the amazing realities of our redemption is that because of the cross and resurrection we are now “in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17). On a spiritual level, this produces two great results. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that God’s grace causes us to be raised with Him to resurrected life and seated with Him in the heavenly realms. What assurance that gives us! Just as our efforts (vv. 8–9) cannot produce our salvation, they are likewise not the key to our security. Our security is rooted in the fact that we are “in Christ.” Therefore, our place in the Father’s house is so assured that it is as if we were already there.
For more on our eternal home, check out Life to Come: The Hope of the Christian Faith at discoveryseries.org/q1205. By: Bill Crowder
Good Works Prepared
For we are . . . created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10
When a burly stranger approached my wife and me on a street abroad, we shrunk back in fear. Our holiday had been going badly; we had been yelled at, cheated, and extorted from several times. Were we going to be shaken down again? To our surprise, the man just wanted to show us where to get the best view of his city. Then he gave us a chocolate bar, smiled, and left. That little gesture made our day—and saved the whole trip. It made us grateful—both to the man and to God for cheering us up.
What had made the man reach out to two strangers? Had he gone around with a chocolate bar the entire day, looking to bless someone with it?
It’s amazing how the smallest action can bring the biggest smile—and possibly direct someone to God. The Bible stresses the importance of doing good works (James 2:17, 24). If that sounds challenging, we have the assurance that God not only enables us to do these works, but has even “prepared [them] in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
Perhaps God has arranged for us to “bump into” someone who needs a word of encouragement today or has given us an opportunity to offer someone a helping hand. All we have to do is respond in obedience. By Leslie Koh
Today's Reflection
Who can you pray for or help today? Who might God be putting in your path?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 07, 2019
Spiritual Dejection
We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. —Luke 24:21
Every fact that the disciples stated was right, but the conclusions they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else. Dejection stems from one of two sources— I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust means “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected, because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.
We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The message of the prophets is that although they have forsaken God, it has not altered God. The Apostle Paul emphasizes the same truth, that God remains God even when we are unfaithful (see 2 Timothy 2:13). Never interpret God as changing with our changes. He never does; there is no variableness in Him. Notes on Ezekiel, 1477 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 07, 2019
The Bumpy Road to a Beautiful Destination - #8369
It's one of those hidden natural treasures that not a lot of people know about. They call it Buttermilk Falls. People had told us what a picturesque spot it would be. They just didn't tell us about the road you have to drive to see this picturesque spot. So, we turned off the paved road where our directions said to and suddenly we found ourselves on a dirt road that was one crater after another. There was no way to miss these massive potholes. In fact, one guy in a Volkswagen in front of us just totally disappeared. (Well no, not really.) I mean, I had to drive about two miles an hour with the kids reminding me that they were not having much fun. Well, neither was I. It was really tempting to turn back, but we persevered. And I'm glad we did. We finally reached this magnificent waterfall, cascading down the rock walls of a cliff. There was even a trail where we climbed to the top and got this great view from the top of the waterfall. We loved it! And in spite of the miserable road to it, we went back several times. And it was worth it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bumpy Road to a Beautiful Destination."
Actually, you might be navigating a very bumpy road in your life right now, and you're not enjoying this process much at all. And as you're having to really slow down and absorb the shocks, it's tempting to turn back, isn't it? But God wants to remind you today of something that is easy to forget when the road is rough: there's something beautiful - there's something worth it - at the end of this difficult journey.
Few people in the Bible rode a bumpier road than Joseph. Hated by his brothers, thrown into a pit by them, taken into slavery in Egypt, thrown into prison for doing the right thing. No, God didn't tell him where this rough road was leading any more than He's telling you where yours goes. But Joseph had the faith to keep driving even when it was almost impossible to imagine a happy ending.
Of course, we know there was a very happy ending. God promoted Joseph to be the assistant Pharaoh of Egypt - the second most powerful man in the world - so he would be in a position to help Egypt to forecast and prepare for a great famine. And to provide the food that would save the lives of the very brothers who had hurt him so deeply.
Now, our word for today from the Word of God begins in Genesis 45:5 as Joseph tells his brothers, "It was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you...It was not you who sent me here, but God." All that pain was to position him to make a difference in many lives. So, in Genesis 50:20, Joseph testifies to the sovereignty of God as he says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish the saving of many lives."
Well, it had been a road filled with some deep pitfalls and some jarring blows. But it came out - like the road to our waterfall - at a beautiful place. Joseph's God is the same God you belong to. And He's taking you somewhere that will make the bumpy road worth it. He may be using these jolts to outfit you for a powerful ministry to hurting people. Maybe He's birthing great faith in you so you'll have what it takes to do great things for Him. Maybe He's allowing a mess so He can show you a miracle. He may be having you wait longer than you wanted because He's preparing you for a plan that is greater than you could have ever dreamed.
If you keep your eyes on the God of all hope, you will be able to handle the bumps, trusting in a God who uses bumpy roads to get us to beautiful destinations. So don't turn back now. You are going to love the view up ahead.