Max Lucado Daily: BRUISED REEDS AND SMOLDERING WICKS
Look at a bruised reed at the water’s edge—once slender, sturdy, and tall— now bowed and bent. Are you a bruised reed? You were upright and sturdy, rooted in the riverbed of confidence. Then you were bruised by harsh words, a friend’s anger, a spouse’s betrayal, religion’s rigidity, or your own failure.
Is there anything closer to death than the smoldering wick on a candle? Once you blazed with faith. Then they said your ideas were foolish, your dreams were too lofty.
But the theme of the New Testament is that God is the friend of the wounded heart and the keeper of your dreams. Christ met people at all points of pain. By His touch bruised reeds straightened and smoldering wicks were ignited.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 20
A David Psalm
20 1-4 God answer you on the day you crash,
The name God-of-Jacob put you out of harm’s reach,
Send reinforcements from Holy Hill,
Dispatch from Zion fresh supplies,
Exclaim over your offerings,
Celebrate your sacrifices,
Give you what your heart desires,
Accomplish your plans.
5 When you win, we plan to raise the roof
and lead the parade with our banners.
May all your wishes come true!
6 That clinches it—help’s coming,
an answer’s on the way,
everything’s going to work out.
7-8 See those people polishing their chariots,
and those others grooming their horses?
But we’re making garlands for God our God.
The chariots will rust,
those horses pull up lame—
and we’ll be on our feet, standing tall.
9 Make the king a winner, God;
the day we call, give us your answer.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 01, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:John 21:17-25
Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.”
20-21 Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?”
22-23 Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You—follow me.” That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?”
24 This is the same disciple who was eyewitness to all these things and wrote them down. And we all know that his eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.
25 There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.
Insight
Some scholars speculate that John 21 was written (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) at a later time than the first 20 chapters and was added to clarify a misunderstanding. Apparently, some believed that Jesus had promised John he wouldn’t die until Jesus returned, and that rumor had spread widely. The so-called “second ending” (ch. 21) was intended to address that false idea by clarifying Jesus’s words (vv. 22–23). By: Bill Crowder
No Comparison
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30
“One of these days I’m going to put it all on Facebook—not just the good stuff!”
My friend Sue’s comment—made casually over lunch with her husband—caused me to laugh out loud and also to think. Social media can be a good thing, helping us stay in touch with and pray for friends across the years and miles. But if we’re not careful, it can also create an unrealistic outlook on life. When much of what we see posted is a “highlight reel” of “the good stuff,” we can be misled into thinking others’ lives are without trouble, and wonder where our own went wrong.
Comparing ourselves with others is a sure recipe for unhappiness. When the disciples compared themselves to each other (see Luke 9:46; 22:24), Jesus quickly discouraged it. Soon after His resurrection, Jesus told Peter how he would suffer for his faith. Peter then turned to John and asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (John 21:21–22).
Jesus pointed Peter to the best remedy for unhealthy comparisons. When our minds are focused on God and all He’s done for us, self-focused thoughts fall gently away and we long to follow Him. In place of the world’s competitive strain and stress, He gives us His loving presence and peace. Nothing can compare with Him. By James Banks
Today's Reflection
How can you use social media in a God-honoring way? How can a real relationship with God keep you from making unhealthy comparisons?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 01, 2019
The Piercing Question
Do you love Me? —John 21:17
Peter’s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Matthew 26:35; also see Matthew 26:33-34). Our natural individuality, or our natural self, boldly speaks out and declares its feelings. But the true love within our inner spiritual self can be discovered only by experiencing the hurt of this question of Jesus Christ. Peter loved Jesus in the way any natural man loves a good person. Yet that is nothing but emotional love. It may reach deeply into our natural self, but it never penetrates to the spirit of a person. True love never simply declares itself. Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men [that is, confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words], him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8).
Unless we are experiencing the hurt of facing every deception about ourselves, we have hindered the work of the Word of God in our lives. The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses. But this question of the Lord intensifies our sensitivities to the point that this hurt produced by Jesus is the most exquisite pain conceivable. It hurts not only on the natural level, but also on the deeper spiritual level. “For the Word of God is living and powerful…, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…”— to the point that no deception can remain (Hebrews 4:12). When the Lord asks us this question, it is impossible to think and respond properly, because when the Lord speaks directly to us, the pain is too intense. It causes such a tremendous hurt that any part of our life which may be out of line with His will can feel the pain. There is never any mistaking the pain of the Lord’s Word by His children, but the moment that pain is felt is the very moment at which God reveals His truth to us.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 01, 2019
Mail From Someone Who Loves You - #8385
I used to laugh at my roommate in college when he'd get a love letter from his girlfriend. He was kind of weird all day. He'd go off and he'd read that thing, you know, four or five times. And I'd go, "Hey, Buddy, there's nothing new in there. It says the same thing every time." Well, there was no laughing when I was separated from the woman I loved and ended up marrying. No, Karen and I were separated for the summers, and boy, I'll tell you what. I would write a letter to her just about every day, and she'd write a letter to me just about every day. I've got a whole suitcase full of those letters it's still nice to go back and read. Because I'll tell you, what made my day was going to that mailbox and getting some mail and knowing there would probably be mail there from somebody who loved me very much.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Mail From Someone Who Loves You."
Actually, you get mail every day from someone who loves you very much, but you could. It's actually mail from Almighty God Himself! It's contained in the Word of God - the Bible. See, God's messages are in His Book. Maybe you say, "Well, yeah, but that's not new information." Well, right, God's messages in the Bible are timeless information. They're always there, they are as true today as they were the day He authored them. and they've been true for generation after generation after generation. But, on the other hand, God's messages are always breaking news, too, because your situation is different today than the last time you may have read that verse.
God has a way through His Holy Spirit of personalizing that message. Of course, God's Holy Spirit, who knows all about the Bible and knows all about you, will miraculously use one of God's messages to change how you see your situation, and it might even change the situation! Timeless information, yes. But it is also breaking news for your situation.
Yes, you've got mail from God. But, like any message you might receive through email or text, you'll never get the message if you don't check in to see what God has to say today. So many days have been so unnecessarily confusing, frustrating and messed up because you didn't pick up your mail from God.
There's a great picture of how God sends His messages to us in our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 16:14. God's ancient people were traveling through the wilderness in need of food. And God supplied their need by sending this miracle food called manna – which interestingly enough the Hebrew word means, "What is it?" "Hey, let's go get some 'what is it' Honey." The Bible says, "When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, 'What is it?'"
"Moses said to them, 'This is what the Lord has commanded: Each one is to gather as much as he needs...No one is to keep any of it until morning.' However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggot," the Bible says, "and it began to smell." In the New Testament, manna is actually used to symbolize spiritual food from God. And the "collection" principle is still the same – pick up a fresh batch each new day.
Yesterday's messages from God? Well, they're not going to do for today, because He's got fresh manna for you, fresh messages for the needs of this fresh new day. That's one of the main ways "His new mercies come every morning."
Some days your mail from God are going to give you perspective on what's going on in your life. Other days it will give you a corrective to steer you back on course from a detour you're almost about to take. But it's daily bread! You'll have to want God's messages enough to turn off some of the other messages for a little while: all the stuff you get on your phone, and the text, and the TV, and the Internet, and newspaper, and music – all of which can end up stealing all or most of your time with God.
If you'll open God's Word with the eagerness and the anticipation of someone who is opening their love letter, I can guarantee you that you will always have mail, holy mail, life-changing mail - messages from the God of the universe to your heart.
