Max Lucado Daily: VICTIMS OF FUTILITY
In the shade of a well in a rejected land Jesus spoke to an ostracized woman, saying, “I am the Messiah.” Don’t you know His eyes must have danced as he whispered the secret to the Samaritan woman—a woman with five failed marriages. Suddenly the insignificance of her life was swallowed by the significance of the moment. She dropped her water jar and ran to the city to tell the people.
The water jar seems to symbolize the weight she was carrying. The weight of her struggles and insignificance. Jesus took her common existence and made it special. He took a rejected woman and made her a missionary. A forgotten water jar marked the burial place of insignificance.
Read more Six Hours One Friday
Psalm 86
A David Psalm
86 1-7 Bend an ear, God; answer me.
I’m one miserable wretch!
Keep me safe—haven’t I lived a good life?
Help your servant—I’m depending on you!
You’re my God; have mercy on me.
I count on you from morning to night.
Give your servant a happy life;
I put myself in your hands!
You’re well-known as good and forgiving,
bighearted to all who ask for help.
Pay attention, God, to my prayer;
bend down and listen to my cry for help.
Every time I’m in trouble I call on you,
confident that you’ll answer.
8-10 There’s no one quite like you among the gods, O Lord,
and nothing to compare with your works.
All the nations you made are on their way,
ready to give honor to you, O Lord,
Ready to put your beauty on display,
parading your greatness,
And the great things you do—
God, you’re the one, there’s no one but you!
11-17 Train me, God, to walk straight;
then I’ll follow your true path.
Put me together, one heart and mind;
then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.
From the bottom of my heart I thank you, dear Lord;
I’ve never kept secret what you’re up to.
You’ve always been great toward me—what love!
You snatched me from the brink of disaster!
God, these bullies have reared their heads!
A gang of thugs is after me—
and they don’t care a thing about you.
But you, O God, are both tender and kind,
not easily angered, immense in love,
and you never, never quit.
So look me in the eye and show kindness,
give your servant the strength to go on,
save your dear, dear child!
Make a show of how much you love me
so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed,
As you, God, gently and powerfully
put me back on my feet.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Philippians 1:3-11
Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
7-8 It’s not at all fanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deep roots in reality. You have, after all, stuck with me all the way from the time I was thrown in jail, put on trial, and came out of it in one piece. All along you have experienced with me the most generous help from God. He knows how much I love and miss you these days. Sometimes I think I feel as strongly about you as Christ does!
9-11 So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
Insight
The city of Philippi got its name from Alexander the Great’s father, Philip of Macedon, who captured the city in 360 bc. It was the leading city of the province of Macedonia, which today is comprised of northern and central Greece and part of Albania. Philippi was considered a Roman colony, and so the people had the rights of Roman citizens.
Paul first came to Philippi after having a vision in which a man begged him to “come over to Macedonia and help us.” Paul concluded that God wanted him to preach the gospel there and immediately got ready to depart (Acts 16:9–10). Outside the city gate, Paul taught a group of women gathered at the banks of a river. Among them was Lydia, who’s considered to be Paul’s first convert to Christ in Europe (vv. 13–15). By: Alyson Kieda
Situational Awareness
This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Philippians 1:9
My family, all five of us, found ourselves in Rome over the Christmas holidays. I don’t know when I’ve ever seen more people jammed together in one place. As we snaked our way through crowds to see sights like the Vatican and the Coliseum, I repeatedly emphasized to my kids the practice of “situational awareness”—pay attention to where you are, who’s around you, and what’s going on. We live in a day when the world, at home and abroad, isn’t a safe place. And with the use of cell phones and ear buds, kids (and adults for that matter) don’t always practice an awareness of surroundings.
Situational awareness. This is an aspect of Paul’s prayer for the believers in Philippi recorded in Philippians 1:9–11. His desire for them was an ever-increasing discernment as to the who/what/where of their situations. But rather than some goal of personal safety, Paul prayed with a grander purpose that God’s holy people might be good stewards of the love of Christ they’d received, discern “what is best,” live “pure and blameless,” and be filled with good qualities that only Jesus can produce. This kind of living springs from an awareness that God is the who in our lives, and our increasing reliance on Him is what brings Him pleasure. And in any and all situations is where we can share from the overflow of His great love. By John Blase
Today's Reflection
How can you bring Christ’s love into your circumstances in a greater way?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
“If You Had Known!”
If you had known…in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. —Luke 19:42
Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly and the city was stirred to its very foundations, but a strange god was there– the pride of the Pharisees. It was a god that seemed religious and upright, but Jesus compared it to “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).
What is it that blinds you to the peace of God “in this your day”? Do you have a strange god– not a disgusting monster but perhaps an unholy nature that controls your life? More than once God has brought me face to face with a strange god in my life, and I knew that I should have given it up, but I didn’t do it. I got through the crisis “by the skin of my teeth,” only to find myself still under the control of that strange god. I am blind to the very things that make for my own peace. It is a shocking thing that we can be in the exact place where the Spirit of God should be having His completely unhindered way with us, and yet we only make matters worse, increasing our blame in God’s eyes.
“If you had known….” God’s words here cut directly to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind them. These words imply responsibility for our own faults. God holds us accountable for what we refuse to see or are unable to see because of our sin. And “now they are hidden from your eyes” because you have never completely yielded your nature to Him. Oh, the deep, unending sadness for what might have been! God never again opens the doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut– doors which had no need to be shut. Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Disciples Indeed, 395 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
No Time for Picnics - #8408
It was the strangest picnic in American history I think. It was July 1861, on a hill in Northern Virginia, overlooking a stream called Bull Run. The Southern states had seceded from the Union, they'd attacked a Union fort in April, and now what the North called "the rebel army" was headed for Washington, D.C. Most people in the capitol thought the Union Army was going to mop up these Southern forces in a matter of weeks, and they wanted to see it happen as the Northern troops moved to engage the Confederates at Bull Run. They came from church in their Sunday best, the ladies and gentlemen of Washington arriving at the hill overlooking Bull Run in their carriages. They laid out their tablecloths, commenced their picnic, and started passing the fried chicken. Down below, the men in blue and the men in gray mingled their blood in the waters of Bull Run.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Time for Picnics."
How can people have a picnic when there's a battle going on? That's a question God must be asking of His own children - those who are supposed to be the soldiers in His army.
It's a scene reminiscent of the day the ancient Jews were getting ready to invade the Promised Land, and a couple of the tribes asked if they could just take their inheritance on the safe side of the Jordan River and settle in there. In Numbers 32:6, our word for today from the Word of God, Moses asks them this haunting question, "Shall you sit here while your brothers go to war?" Well that's a great question. How can you just settle into a comfortable little spot while there are battles to fight for God that require every one of us to be in the fight? A picnic while a battle is going on.
We were shocked that September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 Americans died in one day. Did you know that more than twice that many will die this day in America, every day in America? On an average day in the United States, over 6,000 people go into eternity. Sadly, many - maybe most of them - will not be ready for eternity. Today in our world, over 150,000 people will go into eternity. Again, many with no relationship with Jesus and no hope of heaven. And there is a battle raging to get the Good News about Jesus to them in time!
There's a small army of believers who understand that the battle is the responsibility of every one of us who belongs to Jesus. But, tragically, so many of those who could help rescue the spiritually dying are sitting on a hill with other believers, enjoying the view, passing the blessings, and playing no active role in the battle for human souls.
Yes, it's true. God has to draw people to Him - spiritual rescue is totally a God-thing! But the same man who wrote the verses about us being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world is the same Apostle Paul who was driven to get the Gospel to as many people as possible...even at the cost of his own life.
The battle for a lost world. You know where it begins? It begins with your own family, your own co-workers, fellow students, and friends. When it comes to telling them what you know about Jesus, silence is not golden. No, it's deadly. They need to see Jesus in your life. They need to hear about Jesus from your lips.
You can't just enjoy the fellowship of those who are already headed for heaven while so many around you are headed for hell! God has a place for you in this battle, my friend, and the battle is the Lord's! For you, this is no time to be passing the chicken. It's time to be passing the ammunition!
As that great missionary Amy Carmichael said, "We will have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short hours to win them." And we are in those few short hours.